Alias
by The un-huggable
Summary: Sakura Haruno is sporting a secret... an incredibly important secret that will change the lives of many of the people in Konoha. What happens when her jutsu fails her in her time of need? Read on to find out...
1. Chapter 1

A warm breeze tousled Sakura's court, spiky pink hair. Her eyelids fluttered open; she was in the forest outside Konoha. "Hmmm…" she sat up slowly, and outstretched her arms, looking up at the morning sky. A few of the clouds were painted a light red, "red sky in the morning, Shepard's warning," she lazily drawled. Sakura had a very long night the evening before, and she wasn't in any mood to go bouncing around training, or going out on a date with Naruto, either. She lay back down on the soft clearing floor, staring up at the sky, thinking about the previous night. So much had happened in only ten days, it was so strange that so many people knew about her secret now.

She sighed, and turned over on to her front, plucking away at blades of grass absent-mindedly, her chin resting on the back of her hand. "I wonder what's going to happen next…" She murmured to herself. Sakura hadn't really thought it through this far, she was two drowsy to think about the future, her eyelids felt heavy, and her eyes began to close. She drifted sweetly into a flashback.

"_Sakura!" I can hear someone screaming my name… I wish they wouldn't be so loud… "Sakura! SAKURA!!!" My eyes feel heavy, I have an overwhelming sense of calm wash over me. I tilt my head down; the screaming hasn't stopped, although it is more distant and muffled now. Everything is blurring slightly, what's happening to me…? I feel numb. My eyesight is recovering slightly, I see blood. Lots of blood, is it my own? I can hear a voice calling, me, wait, is that Naruto? I look up; Naruto is running towards me, everything is happening so slowly, unnaturally slowly. I look back down; I now see the kunai protruding from my chest… I think I'm dieing. Blood is pouring out of my chest, why can't I feel it? I'm starting to feel panicked. Everyone's screaming, it's getting louder… My ears hurt. I just want it to go away, I want to go home and sleep, I want to sleep… Naruto's by my side now, Saskue behind him. My legs feel weak. I'm falling down now; I can see the grass coming closer towards me. _

_Someone catches me before I hit the ground. I don't know who it is; the screaming has turned into crying now. Loud sobbing. Who's crying…? Everything is moving normally now. People are saying things like "quickly" or "hurry up!" I really want to sleep. I begin to close my eyes; I feel something sting my cheek. Someone just slapped me. "No! Sakura! Stay awake!" but I want to sleep… _

_The pain hit me; someone just pulled the kunai from my chest. I scream, the pain is unbearable; I want to die. To end it. Hot, wet tears stream down my face. I arch my back, they hold me down. I can feel them un-zipping my dress. I want the pain to stop. They pour something cool down on top of me. It hinders the pain, but doesn't stop it. My throat is sore and dry with the screaming. I can hear my drum-beat heart-beat. It's as if it is right nest to my ear. I still haven't stopped screaming. I open my eyes, and I see lots of people above my head, I don't know who they are, I cannot see their faces. They are all shouting at me, "Stay with us!!! Don't sleep!" I don't want to sleep anymore, I just want to die. My breathing is becoming short; I can only take short breaths in, my lungs hurt when I breathe. I'm hyperventilating. I'm not breathing enough, I feel like someone's sitting on me, like a really heavy weight has been dropped onto my chest. I close my eyes, and don't open them again. My consciousness slips. _

_I can hear voices; murmuring quietly. Where am I? I crack my eyes open, it is really bright. I hear people gasp, someone drops something and it makes a loud sound. I hear footsteps. Someone is rushing over. I try to get up, but flop back down again. I feel a searing pain in my chest. I want it to stop, I yell in pain. Someone is at my bedside. I turn my head to look over. There are four people there: Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, Saskue and Tsunade-sama. Tsunade is saying something, but I can't hear. Kakashi is too. They all look very worried, especially Kakashi-sensei. Naruto and Saskue leave. My hearing is coming back, I can hear them softly talking. I wonder what I look like. Am I all bloody and scratched up? Oh no: has the jutsu worn off? Am I still Sakura? I can hear Tsunade-sama talking, but I'm not listening. Kakashi tells me to pay attention. He looks upset and afraid. I close my eyes again, and I hear shouting… I wish they would be quiet. _

_My eyes shoot open, I'm awake. I sit bolt upright. I suddenly remember where I am. I remember the fight in the woods with Kiba, Hinata and Shino. I remember punching Kiba, and then him lunging towards me with a kunai. I close my eyes, lye back down and sigh. A tear beads amongst my eyelashes. I look around, there isn't anybody in the infirmary, I look out the window, it looks like it's the early hours of the morning. Naruto will be out training. I sit up, and swing my legs over the side of the bed. I wonder exactly how long I was asleep. I go over to a nearby table with a basin on it. I look over it to wash my hands, then freeze. 'Oh no…' I think to myself as I stare back down into the water beneath me. I don't have short, spiky pink hair around my shoulders anymore. My hair is now long, of a very dark brown shade, almost black, and my eyes aren't sparkling emerald green, they're a deep blue hue, with very large soulful pupils. 'No… the jutsu… it wore off when I fell unconscious… Everybody there will know who I am…' All of a sudden, I couldn't remember at all who was a witness to my stabbing._

_I feel the air in the room move, spin around and wince and clutch my chest, where the source of the pain is. I am met with Kakashi-sensei staring at me; he looks old, very old. His eyes don't have his usual twinkle; instead, they have very large bags under them. He standing with a slouch, and starts off towards me._


	2. Chapter 2

12:23 pm, June 17th –ten days before the present time.

Village Hidden in the Leaves, Konoha.

Kakashi Hatake's P.O.V.

Kakashi jumped down from the near by tea house's roof, "sorry I'm late; I was held up with some important paperwork-"

"You always say that Kakashi-sensei! I'm starting to think that you weren't even doing paperwork at all…" Naruto exclaimed. Kakashi scanned the three of them before deciding to give them their instructions. Sasuke was looking dismally out to the east, Naruto was staring intently at him, waiting for him to speak, and Sakura, well, she was looking slightly pissed off, towards Naruto, but her body language was expressing extreme displeasure towards Sasuke. Kakashi decided that there might have been a small argument, nothing to be worried about, and told the team their instructions.

Team 7 were to participate in a ninja tournament in an Academy outside of Konoha. Their job was to be ambassadors of The Village Hidden in the Leaves and to express their skills to other clans and villages in friendly matches. Other ninja teams from Konoha would be participating too; he just didn't tell them that. Naruto seemed really exited; I remember how he was with the Chuunin exams. Sasuke seemed interested, but not enough to bring him out of his slump. Sakura… didn't particularly like the news; she didn't like the Chuunin exams either. Sakura only participated because Naruto and Sasuke would be devastated if she hadn't. Sakura hated the fact that all the Hokages and Kazekages of all the other villages loved hosting tournaments- as if they liked to showcase their ninja's abilities. Sakura had always believed that being a ninja, and having the abilities of one was to be used for the purposes of missions and defending the village only, not to show off to other villages and reveal all your weaknesses.

"We'll meet at the North Gate in fifteen minuets, go and get your bags packed, with you know… underpants… and stuff like that, we'll be gone for a week, minimum!"

"A week!?" Naruto turned around while we were walking off in our separate directions. "A week-long tournament??? How many people are going?!"

"Only a few…" Kakashi winked as he poofed away.

"Argh! Why does he always do that??? It's really annoying! He's such a wuss, he's trying to avoid conversation about the tournament-"

"Naruto… give it a rest and shut up for once. We don't need your whining as we walk to the tournament." Sasuke drawled, before he dramatically turned around and walked off.

"Hmph! He's accusing _me_ of whining!? Sheesh, he should get a lo-"

"Naruto, I'm going to go get my stuff, we better hurry, we have wasted a lot of time already. See you at the gate…" Sakura walked away, down towards the south. Her house was right on the edge of the village, near the forest. Naruto shouted down the road to Sakura, "Hey! Sakura! Do you want me to walk you home?" Sakura stopped dead in her tracks; she smiled to herself before turning around and shouting back: "No, that's fine, I can walk myself" before smiling and returning to walk home.

Naruto thought to himself _'why is she being so nice to me? She would usually turn around and punch me into next week…'_ he shivered at the thought. _'I wonder if that fight with Sasuke had anything to do with it. He __**was**__ being a total jerk…'_ Naruto had started walking again, he was quite near his home by now, and had stopped at his door. He remembered the fight between Sakura and Sasuke.

'_Sakura… why do you always pine for me like a total loser… you're so annoying, you're almost as bad as Naruto- no, wait, you're __**worse**__ than Naruto. Get your own life, and stop interfering with mine.' Sakura looked like she was on the verge of tears, but… angry tears?_

'_You're such a total jerk, you know that? I'm trying to __**help**__ you, I feel sorry for what happened to your clan, and I want to let you know that there is always someone there for you. That you're not alone, that there are still people that love and care about you. But, no! You just have to push all your friends away because you're such a cold bastard. I wish you could be more like you were before!' Sakura looked surprised, and clapped her hand to her mouth. Sasuke looked confused, then really angry. _

"_You have no idea what I was like before that all happened! It's not your place to say, either! Please, just leave me alone and get on with your __**own**__ life!"_

"_Oh, don't worry, I will! I'm sick and tired of my kindness being shrugged off." Sakura then turned away from Sasuke, her arms folded, looking into the distance, tears welling up in her eyes. "Look what you've done now! Sasuke, you're such a jerk! Why can't you just-"_

"_Naruto… please, just leave it." Sakura's quivering voice made them both feel slightly guilty. _

Naruto sighed as he opened his front door and stepped inside.

***

Sakura stopped outside her house; she looked both ways before walking on, past her house and towards the forest. '_This fake house business is really getting tedious, there's nothing in that one, it's completely empty. I can't have anyone finding possessions from my past in that house.'_ She carried on walking through the forest. She got to a very large oak tree, and stopped in front of it. There was one large tree branch forking out of the trunk towards Sakura, at shoulder height. She jumped on top of it, and it began to lower. It was much like a drawbridge into the tree. There were ropes connecting it to the inside, and rocks weighing it back down, it would take a person like Choji to lean on it and discover then entrance, it was quite safe, and an ingenious design, but, you've got Kakashi-sensei to thank for that one.

Sakura slid down the branch and inside the tree. The diameter of the tree would have had to have been about two meters wide, just big enough to fit a growing young girl and her Sensei in it with lots of room afterwards. There were more rope and pulley systems inside, but this time a wench fixed to the base of the tree, in which Sakura pulled and pushed to hoist the platform up the inside of the tree. The design was primitive, yet ingenious. Sakura had got to the top; she was inside the canopy of the trees, after lifting the cover of the tunnel through the tree, of course. There were four other trees in the forest that did the same thing, all at right-angles to each other. They were the four corners to her house. The area of her house was around 49 meters squared, this meant that each of the "corner trees" were seven meters apart; approximately, of course.

Kakashi-sensei had put some planks of wood, above the canopy to act like walking boards between each of the trees. The canopy was so dense, it would be impossible to see them from the forest floor, so it was alright to leave them out, but there was a safety mechanism that contracted them to their respective trees if there was a disaster, like a forest fire or, something along those lines. She walked across the walkway, to the tree that faced east. She was going to be late, so she sped up a little. On top of each of the trees that faced east, north and west were little tree houses where Sakura kept all of her belongings from her past life. She kept them because she never wanted to forget.

She reached the east corner, and went inside the house; there in the corner of the room was her black canvas satchel bag, inside it were two summoning scrolls, she decided to leave them in there, just in case, she hunted around the room for a weeks worth of clothes and some keep-sakes to keep her sane whilst locked up with Mr. Ice-cube. She clenched her fist when she thought of Sasuke his words: _"You have no idea what I was like before that all happened! It's not your place to say, either!" _were ringing in her ears from their earlier fight. She looked down at the picture in her hand, it was of what seemed to be a family, they all had dark brown or black hair. Half the family had dark onyx eyes, but the other half had bright, very light mauve eyes. It was quite a large family photo, with all the secondary family on both sides in it. Both sides of the family looked quite regal, all in formal dress, the ladies in kimonos, and the men in traditional Ninja outfits. She put it back down on a dresser in the room._ 'I do know what you were like before the village was destroyed. You were much nicer back then.'_ Instead she picked up a smaller picture or a little girl laughing in a young woman's arms, the girl looked only about three years old. They both had dark hair and the woman had onyx eyes, like some of the people in the other picture. But the little girl's eyes weren't like presumably, her mothers. The light was shining on them, but, you could faintly make out very large, black, soulful pupils, and a very small rim of striking blue iris around it.

Sakura sighed as she put the picture and a lovely necklace away in the satchel. She opened her underwear draw, and pulled out some hideous, pink frilled knickers out. _'Yuck, only someone like Sakura would wear something as hideous as this… or maybe Ino-pig would…?'_

"Nice lingerie… I didn't know you were into that kind of thing." Sakura let out a yelp as she tried to hide the offending undergarments whilst turning around to see who had intruded on her packing. She spun round to be met with no one other then Kakashi-sensei standing in her doorway. "If you don't hurry, you're going to be late, stop dawdling with your frilly knickers and start packing!" Kakashi let out a small chuckle as he was met with the most murderous look on Sakura's face. "I knew I'd find you here-"

"There is such a thing as knocking, you know. Next time, don't creep up on me like that!"

"I didn't creep up on you; you were so engrossed looking at your photo albums, that you didn't notice me in plain sight! Come on, you're going to be late, and that'll make me late, because I need to arrive after you, otherwise it might look a tad suspicious." Sakura sighed, grabbed seven pairs of pants, and other needed items, shoved them in her bag and left, but not before sticking her tongue out at Kakashi-sensei.

Kakashi turned around, and watched her go, smiling to himself, before deciding to waste time while she got to the north gate by snooping around in her east tree house, I mean, she had _basically_ invited him in.

***

Sakura decided to go roof-hopping to the North Gate. It would be quicker then walking, and she needed to get there faster then Kakashi, so she quickly hopped from roof to roof, occasionally scaring some residents as they witnesses a pink blur wiz past their windows. She was getting close to the North Gate; she could see it in the distance. _'Oh shit'_ she thought as she neared her destination. Naruto hadn't arrived yet, it was just Sasuke standing at the gate. _'Shit, shit, shit!'_ Sakura slowed down; she jumped off the roof she was standing on and kept a steady walking pace towards the Gate. It seemed as if Sasuke had noticed her walking towards him, because he seemed to become very fidgety, and was determined to avoid her gaze. Sakura walked straight past him, and stopped about half a metre away, not turning around to look at him. Not even saying a word. This made Sasuke even more fidgety. Sakura could sense his discomfort and smiled to herself. She still stood there, not saying a word.

Sasuke looked extremely uncomfortable, his face was going redder every second, and his hands were quivering. He kept on shifting his balance from one foot to the other. _'Why am I feeling so guilty? I don't understand… I shouldn't feel guilty. She needed to be told that. She wasn't being kind. She was acting like all the other fan girls out there. But now I've hurt her feelings… how are we supposed to work together in the tournament if she won't even speak to me?'_ Sasuke clenched his fists together, looked down at the ground and closed his eyes shut, really tight. He took a deep breath.

In one swift movement Sasuke span around, grabbed Sakura's shoulder, jerked the rest of her body round to face him and blurted out: "I'm sorry for being so harsh earlier I didn't realise you weren't like the rest I thought you didn't really know me like all the others-" He panted shallowly afterwards, as he hadn't taken a single breath throughout the whole ordeal, he hadn't realised he had been holding his breath since before he turned around. Sakura looked at him, and then at his hands, they were holding her upper arms quite tightly in anticipation of her reply. She took a deep breath; she was just about to reply, when trouble came along wearing a bright orange jump suit.


	3. Chapter 3

13:17, 17th June- ten days before the present time

North Gate, Village Hidden in the Leaves, Konoha.

Sakura Haruno's P.O.V.

"Hey! Sasuke! Get away from her!" Naruto didn't slowdown when he reached Sasuke; instead he jumped on him from behind, making Sasuke lunge foreword, and in turn that pushes me backwards. I land on my backside, but I'm pushed even closer to the ground by Sasuke, as his hands are sill connected to my arms. Naruto, being the knuckle-head ninja he is, decided to start bouncing up and down on to of Sasuke, who was still on top of me (facing downwards) and begins to hit Sasuke repetitively on the back, shouting "Don't you dare hurt Sakura! Don't touch her you bastard!" At the time, I was extremely pissed off, as I was just about to give Sasuke a lashing, but no, everything had to be ruined by the orange jump-suit on top of both of us. I looked up at Sasuke, and saw his facial expression, he seemed slightly apologetic, but more pissed off, like my own. Luckily I wasn't feeling the barrage of blows from Naruto, because Sasuke was propping himself up be his arms, thus his body was never in contact with mine, and thus it never felt like Sasuke was being raped by Naruto, who in turn was raping me. I'm glad I avoided that situation…

Because Sasuke had propped himself up, there was room for me to slither out from under both of them, and prize Naruto from Sasuke, and try to calm him down. It didn't seem to go to plan… "Calm down Naruto, Sasuke didn't do anything wrong, in fact he even apologised!"

"SHUT UP! I bet you he didn't even mean it, I mean, why would he, he's such a self-centred JERK! Let me GO Sakura, I need to kick his whiny little ass into next week!"

"NARUTO! Calm down! Please, just _calm down_." I let go of Naruto and smoothed out the wrinkles on his jump-suit, I looked up at him again just as Kakashi-sensei poofed in.

"Looks like we're all having fun here, shall we get moving?" I sighed in relief of Kakashi-sensei's arrival, because both Naruto and Sasuke seemed to behave around him. I looked at Naruto again, and said softly,

"We should get going…" I watched Naruto eyeing Sasuke carefully, and Sasuke eyeing Naruto carefully until they both decided that it was safe to start moving out towards the gate, I let them go on ahead and waited for Kakashi-sensei. Kakashi and I walked in unison together, watching the boys in silence. After a while, I asked how long the journey would be, then lowered my voice to nearly an inaudible whisper to say: "is it wise to send team 7 out to this tournament, I mean, does Tsunade-sama know about team 7's… problem?" Kakashi' eyes closed and it seemed like forever until he opened them again to answer. He sighed.

"No, she is still unaware of the situation she doesn't even know there is a situation… in fact, no one knows, it was only the third Hokage, Jiraiya-sama, and myself that knew. And well… there really hasn't been a sober moment when I have been able to talk to Tsunade… she really does enjoy her sake…"

"So… you're telling me right now, that Tsunade-sama, A.K.A. the fourth Hokage has no idea I even exist???" Kakashi embarrassingly put his arm up and scratched the back of his head and blushed a little.

"He he… not really, no…" I was extremely cross with Sensei for not telling the Hokage one of the most important things ever… and now she's sent us all off to a tournament, what happens if my jutsu fails then??? Everybody there will know who I am, all the important ninjas from the other villages will know, there will be a bounty on my head for sure… the news will spread like wild fire and I'll be done for, for sure. I looked down and watched the ground move beneath my feet. I sighed in disbelief, and fear.

Just then, I felt something wet make a "plik" sound on the tip of my nose, it was beginning to rain! Looked up, and, there I was, met with a barrage of water droplets- in the middle of June! I said more for myself, but Kakashi seemed to hear too, "aa… ame da" and smiled to him, in more of a polite way then anything. I was a little worried, though; there hadn't been any clouds last time I had checked, I looked over at Sasuke and Naruto, who were expressing the same looks of bewilderment too. I looked to Naruto as he said, "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, when are we going to get there?"

"It's not too far from here, but, I think we should maybe wait until the rain stops, Sasuke, do you see any shelter?" I decided to reply to the question before Sasuke could even open his mouth.

"Kakashi-sensei, there's a small tea house about two minuets down the road from here; if we run we could make it in under that." Kakashi smiled.

"I like the way you think, Sakura." I returned his grin with one of my own, and sped past Naruto and Sasuke, if this mission is going to jeopardise my well being, then, I might as well have some fun doing it.

"Last one there is a dobe!!!" I left Saskue and Naruto in shock of the sudden turn of events before they glanced at each other, determined not to lose. Kakashi chuckled to himself as he snapped his book closed and poofed away.

I looked over my shoulder, and saw Sasuke and Naruto running in complete unison, neck and neck… but, not using any chakra. By releasing small bursts of chakra from my feet, I was able to propel myself a little faster each step, gathering momentum until I was moving exceptionally fast. And Kakashi… was already at the tea house??? I could see him reading his pervy book down at the entrance, I wondered how the hell he got there so fast, I looked back at Naruto and Sasuke, and they still weren't using any chakra, silly men. Their rivalry got in the way of their common sense. I arrived at the tea house in record time, only about ten seconds before the two boys caught up; they were both panting, and bent over clutching their knees. As soon as they caught their breath they both stood up bolt upright and chorused "I got here before you!" As they pointed at each other; I can imagine it was almost like looking into a mirror for them. They both spun round and said again, in unison, "No you didn't! Stop copying me!" At that point, Kakashi-sensei and I couldn't help but crack up laughing.

Naruto and Sasuke both looked round at us and said "Tell us who got here first!" I decided to reply.

"Out of all of us? Kakashi-sensei. Out of you two? Neither. You both got here at the same time." Kakashi snapped his book shut again and decided to change the conversation.

"Shall we go and get some tea, then, dobes?" I smiled; they really were acting like dobes.

Kakashi-sensei opened the door to the tea house; the rain was getting a little heavier by then. We all walked in, one after the other. Kakashi announced to the owner that we would like to order one large pot of green tea. And we all sat down at a table. I asked if there was a toilet, the woman told me where it was.

Kakashi watched me leave. It was slightly unnerving, having his sharingan boring into the back of my head, but, I guess he was just a little curious. Naruto and Sasuke didn't even seem to notice.

I stepped inside the toilet, sat on the floor, and immediately dived into my satchel. I pulled out the necklace that I had put in there earlier. _'If I ever loose my bag, I don't want to loose the necklace with it' _I thought. I looked down at the necklace; I studied its fine detail and beauty. The necklace was my mother's before she died; she said she'd give it to me one day. That day never came. The necklace was beautiful, but, as my mother used to chide: "It is the wearer that makes the person breathtaking; the necklace cannot make an evil person good." I closed my eyes as I thought of her. She was so strong and intelligent; it is so strange that she fell to such a person…

The necklace was made of silver, mother said that it was my father's side of the family that suited gold, she said that silver looked nicer on her. The design was quite ingenious; at first glance it seemed to look like a small, silver disk on a chain. There were all sorts of carvings in the silver, and as you flipped it over, there was the new joined clan's crest. There was one magnificent large moonstone in the middle of it, which glistened when placed in the sun. There was something that Sakura had never understood, though; there was a small hole on the bottom of the disk, so the hole faced the floor. It looked like the letter "S" and it looked as if it was supposed to join with something… but it was never found. Nobody could find what fit in the locket, after that treacherous day. Not even Kakashi-sensei.

I looked up as I heard someone banging on the door; it startled me so much I thought I was going to drop the necklace. It was the woman I had spoken to before, she was shouting through the door "You're tea's getting cold! Are you OK in there?" I responded, weakly "I'll be out in a minute." I heard her footsteps fading into the distance. I got up and went to the mirror before collecting my bag and opening the toilet door. I stopped dead in my tracks; I had forgotten to put the necklace in my dress, the pendant was in plain sight of anybody that wished to see it. I turned swiftly around, before Kakashi or any of the others had time to look over, and unzipped the first two inches of my dress, slid the pendant in it, and zipped it back up. It was then, when I realised that I was getting a little too big for my dress… I mean, I _am_ growing after all. But I couldn't do up the last inch again. I sighed, picked up my bag and returned to the table.

I suddenly felt very exposed, who knew that such a minute change could have made such a big impact? I was sitting next to Kakashi-sensei, so all I could see were Naruto and Sasuke's faces. At first Sasuke didn't even notice, but Naruto… I felt my face getting hotter just looking back at him. Sasuke took one look at me, and then spurted his sip that he was taking straight back out. He was laughing. I felt my face going red; I didn't even need a mirror to know that. He was in hysterics. Naruto finally draw his gaze away, and asked what was so funny; baka Naruto, always oblivious.

"W-what's so funny? Bwa hahahaha! T-tell me, Sakura; who are you trying to impress? Bwa ha haa!!" I sat there with clenched fists. I couldn't just tell them what I had done, so instead, I decided to throw my tea at him. Lucky for him I had spent so much time putting the necklace on that it would only have been about twenty degrees by then, but, still it caught him by surprise, and gave me a chuckle too.

"You don't have to be sad, Sakura! You impressed me!" Foolish Naruto, he was only trying to be nice, but I made him eat those words after he said them. In fact I made such a commotion with Naruto that we were asked to leave. Kakashi-sensei was chuckling all the way to the tournament. I kept my distance from all three of those boys. I couldn't bare the thought of having to speak to any of them ever again.

***

When we arrived at the entrance to the centre, we were greeted by a Jounin of the Village Hidden in the Mist. He directed us to the West Entrance, and we were to stay in room 3-A. We arrived there only about three minutes later, Kakashi-sensei said that each team had a room to share, and the Senseis all had a room next to the Genin's. Naruto complained that it was unfair, and asked how on earth he was supposed to live in the same room as Sasuke; I felt the same way, but, it was only a week, so I stayed silent.

Kakashi told Naruto to be quiet as he ushered us into room 3-A, he said that he needed to go file some paperwork and slammed the door shut, and I heard the lock click. "He obviously doesn't trust us" Naruto exclaimed as he furiously shook the door by its handle.

"Naruto, have you ever maybe thought that he's doing this for our protection. There are other ninja's outside that door from other villages that may well be a lot older and stronger then us. And knowing you, you'd soon get us into a fight with one of them, and _then_ where would we be?"

"Sasuke has got a point, although I do hate to admit it, Naruto." I glared at Sasuke before looking around the room. There were only two visible beds. _'Crap. I swear to god, _**_I am going to kill you _**_Kakashi, as soon as I get out of here.'_ Looks like Sasuke had noticed too, as he uttered _"kuso"_ under his breath before staring intently at me. "Naruto, where do you wish to sleep?" I asked politely. I really didn't mind sleeping on the floor if it was necessary.

"Huh?" Naruto looked round at the sleeping area; "Aiyaa- there are only two beds in here! What the hell were these people thinking? Sakura, I think you should have one of the beds. I don't mind sleeping on the floor! Just as long as you're not sharing with _Sasuke_, then I don't care where I sleep!"

"I'm glad you don't care where you sleep, Naruto, because at the moment you'll be sleeping outside with the rest of the dogs." Sasuke smirked while Naruto's face turned a lovely shade of beetroot. "And I assure you Naruto, she won't be sleeping anywhere near me."

"Shut up! Both of you! I don't want any fights if we are all going to be roommates here. OK?" Both Sasuke and Naruto resumed to their normal positions, after giving each other one final death-glare. "Good, now, seeing as Naruto insists I sleep on one of the beds, you two have to decide who sleeps on the ground to the right of the first bed, or on the second bed, near the wall."

"I shall sacrifice myself; I shall take the bed near the wall… I guess that just leaves you on the floor, Naruto; where the dogs belong."

"Hey I didn't even get a chance to say anything!" Naruto pulled a very pouty face while Sasuke and I put our belongings out on the bed.

I took out my pyjamas (what was basically a long shirt, with a v-neck collar). While I was rifling through my bag my hand brushed across the picture I had brought with me, I looked at it in my hands before I stuffed it to the bottom of my bag, before Sasuke saw.

I looked around at Naruto, who was taking out various scrolls from his bag, and throwing some back. I think he was deciding which ones to use tomorrow. I sighed and looked out the tiny window very high up. It was almost twilight. Time had flown by today. It seemed all a blur now.

"I think we should get some sleep if we want to be in top form for tomorrow's matches." Sasuke said, also looking out the window. Naruto looked up at him before agreeing with a stern:  
"H-hai."

I looked back at Sasuke. He had changed so much since the day we first met; he told me everything, he played with me, and he laughed with me. He was so happy back then, for no valid reason. He didn't need to torment poor Naruto to get a kick in life. I started un-zipping the front of my dress, to put on my pyjamas. I glanced up at Sasuke, who was facing me still un-packing. His face was dusted with pink, and the look on his face was priceless. He thought I was stripping for him! I suddenly felt quite shy, and decided to zip my dress back up, put on my night-shirt, and _then_ take off my dress, underneath my pyjamas. Maybe that would make him happier.

I turned around the other way, to face Naruto this time, to undress, which, only now seems like a bad idea. I un-zipped the dress again, and let it fall before kicking it lazily from my ankles onto the bed. I was just about to take of my shorts when I realised Naruto was having a nosebleed. "Aiyaaaaaa! Naruto! Control yourself!" my horror was met with chuckles, which turned into giggles which turned swiftly into hysteric laughter soon after. I turned around at told Sasuke to shut up, and then jumped on Naruto and slapped him silly until his fear of me finally made his nosebleed stop. Sasuke's laughter turned into chuckles once more and he finally wiped the tears from his eyes before he looked up at me.

My inner Sakura was beginning to shine through, as I cracked my knuckles and moved so my shadow surrounded Sasuke's body. He looked more afraid then I had ever seen him in my life… this made me thrown my head back and cackle maniacally; which scared him even more so. I saw him lean backward as I leaned in before swiftly punching his stomach, releasing chakra on impact; which made it even more painful then my usual hit. I let him fall face first onto his bed, then roll onto his side, clutching his stomach in pain. I stood there wondering if I over-did it, but, then thought that he really did deserve it. I stuck my nose into the air, and then proceeded to get into my bed, as it was already dark outside; before I lay down I took one last look at Naruto, who had one tiny droplet of blood under his nostril. I turned to him and said "that better not be another nosebleed, you baka, or you'll wish you were never born."

"N-no sir, I mean m'am!" I grinned as I slid underneath the covers, just as five minutes later both Sasuke and Naruto did (after they changed, of course). I took a deep breath in as I slid my eyelids down. It had been a long day. I wanted to sleep, my mind forgot about all the sad times and decided to take me back to the times when I knew who Sasuke really was, and when my mother was still alive…


	4. Chapter 4

10:04, 18th June- nine days before the present time

Academy Centre, on the outskirts of Konoha.

Sakura Haruno/ Kiba Inuzuka's P.O.V.

My eyes shot open with the banging that came from the door; it looks like we were all awoken abruptly, as I looked around at the bleary-eyed Naruto and Sasuke. Kakashi was giving a "warning knock" on the door before he came in; he said "if you're not decent in the next thirty seconds, I'm coming in anyway." That's exactly what he did, we were all wearily getting up, when he unlocked the door, and it swung open. I got a small glimpse outside, as to what other people were doing. And what I saw surprised me a little; I looked across the hallway, and I had to blink a few times before my mind registered what I saw. There, was Kurenai opening the door across the hallway to reveal a very sleepy Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuga and Shino Aburame. None of them seemed to notice that I saw them, but Kakashi-sensei slammed the door shut before I could call to them, and gave me a stern look.

"I suspect that you all know that since today is the first full day here, you will not be doing any fighting. Today you will attend a lecture in the Rules and code of conduct during the fights. You will also have time today to meet with the other teams and make peace with all of the proctors."

"Have you seen any of the other teams? Is that weird guy with the spiky red hair here? You know the one from the sand village? I think his name wa-"

"Gaara of the Desert, that was his name." Sasuke closed his eyes whilst saying it. It seemed as if he remembered the fight between them back in the Chunin exams. I always had the thought in the back of my mind that Sasuke thought that Gaara was terrifying, even if he never admitted it. I had been one whole year since the Chunin exams, so, Gaara, Kankuro and Temari could be here… I remember the time when I stayed in the Sand village with my father; I befriended Gaara back then. I was his only friend, I was sad when I had to leave, because I remember feeling the same way as Gaara did. Completely alone, lonely, no friends; everybody is afraid to talk to you, or even look at you. Luckily I had Sasuke to keep me sane when I was young, but Gaara, had no one. That must have been the most horrible thing to ever happen. No wonder he had changed so much when I saw him at the Chunin exams. Having to feel like that every single day… knowing deep down in your heart that the only one that ever loved you was gone forever. The feeling of guilt washed over me. _'I could have shown myself to him, given him hope… I could have released my jutsu and shown him who I really am…'_ It's too late now. I probably won't see him again anyway.

I looked up at Kakashi-sensei, he was staring at Naruto; it almost looked as if Kakashi was sad for him, I think that he had made a connection between Gaara and him. Gaara and Naruto were so alike, yet so different. I even remember Gaara making the connection himself: _"Up until now, my bonds with others have only been ones of hatred and murder. But, seeing him fight so hard made me wonder what a bond really is. I think I understand a little now. Suffering, sadness... and joy; to be able to share it with another person. Naruto Uzumaki... when I fought him, I feel that is what he taught me.__"_ I'm glad and proud of Gaara, he seemed to change a lot after that fight, and Naruto finally found another person that could share his emptiness. I wish I could tell him how I feel; that he's not alone, and that I don't hate him, that I was just trying to fit in with everybody else, to make my cover seem more realistic.

Kakashi left after telling us to get dressed, and he'd be back in five minutes to pick us up and take us to the hall in which the lecture was taking place. I turned around to see both Sasuke and Naruto frantically trying to find their clothes and put them on: Naruto was hopping around on one leg in his underwear trying to get his trousers on, and Sasuke was stuck with his shirt above his head. I let out a small giggle before walking over the bed to put my dress on. I had only brought three pairs of clean clothes, so each pairs were supposed to last two days each, but, I encountered a problem when trying to get my dress on. It took extra effort to get it past my hips, and when I had, I could only do the zip up half way! I started to panic, there simply weren't enough clothes for me not to wear this dress today, and what if all the rest of the clothes were too small too??? 'This can't be happening…' I can't go out fighting in my underwear! _'Argh… I have only one option… I have to do this zip up, no matter what…'_ "Naruto! Can you please help me for a minute? I need someone strong to zip up my dress…" _'Shit, that sounded really dodgy…'_ I smiled at Naruto sweetly; trying to make out it wasn't a trap. I glanced over at Sasuke; he had stopped putting on his shirt, and was watching us intently; as if he was waiting for me to spring a trap.

"Uh… ok… Sakura…" Naruto seemed hesitant, he had all the rights to be, as I was to anti-pervert, and this was a big chance for him. He walked across the room, mumbling something about how embarrassing it must be for me before stopping in front of me. His hands were shaking; I have no idea why he was so nervous I was shouting in my head at him: _'Just zip the damn dress up!'_ He slowly took a hold of the zip and… closed his eyes? _'Naruto… you're either extremely afraid of me, or like to preserve my modesty'_ it was probably the former more then the latter. He started pulling the zip up, but he stopped in exactly the same place that I had. _'Damn, I'm getting fat!'_ Naruto cracked an eye open, so see exactly what his situation was, then decided to grab a hold of the neckline of my dress, and pull it taut and then he continued zipping it up. It got stuck again, he tried to force it past, but, it was no use it was really well and truly stuck. Half way up.

"Get out of the way, dobe, let me do it; at least _I_ know I'm not _weak _like_ you_." Sasuke marched Naruto, shoved him out of the way, and gruffly grabbed the zip and began jamming it up and down; this, made Naruto angry and he decided to try and push Sasuke back out of the way.

"No! Sasuke! She asked me to do it!"

"Yeah, well, that was before she found out you were so weak!" The continued arguing, letting their rivalry get in the way of something again. I was getting battered this way and that pushed and pulled in their endeavours to zip my dress up their own way. I was tripping all over the room as Sasuke tugged my dress to the left, and then Naruto punched him and pulled me to the right, while listening to the constant barrage of remarks from one to the other. I heard the lock click again, but it looks like the other two didn't; neither of them stopped pulling and pushing me around. I was trying to tell them to stop, but neither of them heard me; they were too busy trying to be better then each other. The door opened slowly, and there, without fail was Kakashi-sensei; staring at Naruto and Sasuke in bewilderment.

"What…" Kakashi sighed, "…is going on here, you three?" he said that as he snapped his book shut and tucked it away in one of his pockets. Both Naruto and Sasuke stopped dead in their tracks; they must have known how bad it must have looked from behind. They both took a large gulp of air before releasing me from their grip, and very slowly turning around.

"We were only trying to help…" Naruto said as he scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. Sasuke just stared at the floor, as if it had any significance.

"What was wrong, Sakura?" Kakashi turned to me, as if to shed some light on the situation.

"Ah… well… I'm kind-of growing a little bit too big for my dress, Kakashi-sensei, and I asked Naruto if he could help me with it, and…" I began to blush a little afterwards, I didn't think I needed to say anymore. I didn't realise what was happening until it happened. Kakashi had walked over, kneeled down and swiftly zipped my dress up I one movement; he stood up again, and turned to face Naruto and Sasuke,

"That wasn't too hard, was it? I think you two were making out that it was harder then it seems." Naruto and Sasuke looked to him with a look of disbelief on their face, and watched him walk out again, not stopping to wait for us. I decided to leave my bag in the room and run after him with Naruto and Sasuke.

I still didn't understand how I could grow out of my dresses, though, I mean, I _had_ been wearing them for almost a year now, but it seemed to happen a little bit too fast for my liking. _'Is my jutsu wearing off? It can't be…wait… that's it!'_ my jutsu wasn't wearing off, I was growing but the jutsu hadn't adapted. Myself, as the person and appearance I am, have out-grown the jutsu that I cast. My disguise, my inner Sakura and her clothes seemed to fit perfectly for anybody that was looking at me, but, I had grown since I had last changed the jutsu. The Genjutsu is an illusion that I cast by extending my chakra flow through the cerebral nervous system of my opponents to control their mind's chakra, thereby affecting their five senses, and making them believe that what they see is real; which it is obviously to me, not. I use Genjutsu every day to keep my cover as "Sakura Haruno"; I cast a Genjutsu to everybody that surrounds me, and that forces them to see a girl with short, pink hair and green eyes instead of a tall girl with long dark hair and bright blue eyes. The effect of Genjutsu is illusory, creating chakra imbalances in the victim's brain, and thus causing a disruption in their senses. This is often used to create false images or to cause pain from trauma (because the body is led to believe it is in pain); however, there are plenty of other uses depending on the situation. Like my use, of using an illusion to hide my true self. I chose not to use a much easier jutsu: "Transformation Jutsu" because a normal transformation would be dispelled when the user is injured, thus making it completely useless to me, as I am constantly injured in battle when fighting other Genin or Chunin.

We had followed Kakashi-sensei into a great hall now where lots of people were talking shuffling around, getting into seats and a whole manner of other things. Naruto's single word summed the whole sight up in one word: "…ittai…?" Before we knew it Kakashi-sensei had pushed us towards our seats, and we were being pushed around by many other (much larger) ninja that were trying to get past. It was then when I immediately spotted Kurenai's recognisable attire, the weird white bandage dress that she always wears; along with her team, team 8. I thought to myself, _'I __**was**__ right, I did see them across the hall… why didn't Kakashi-sensei tell us that other leaf ninja were coming?'_ It looked like Kiba had sniffed us out because he turned around in his seat, and said "Heh, I don't know what's going on, but I'm always up for getting wild. So, what are you guys doing here, then?"

"Ah, Kiba! How did you know we were here?" Naruto exclaimed, stunned.

"Don't think you can run away from my nose, Naruto." By this point both Hinata and Shino had turned around as well, Hinata was opposite me, Kiba opposite Naruto, and that left Shino opposite Sasuke.

"Oh! N-Naruto… y-you're here a-as well!" Hinata stuttered, her hair seemed longer then it used to be… _'I wonder if she's growing it out for Naruto, like Ino-pig and I did for Sasuke?'_

"He he, that's right Hinata! Tournaments are what team seven's all about! We wouldn't miss a chance like this! I'm going to need to be recognised as a great ninja all over the place if I want to become Hokage some day; and I know that I will for sure!" Naruto boasted.

"You? Hokage? You can't even beat me! No-one's deluded enough to think that you have what it takes to become the next Hokage! Tell you what, though ... I'll become Hokage in your place!" Kiba had been acting really annoying lately… as if he was out to prove he was better then everyone else. Everything started to go quiet and hushes were heard over the babble and hubbub that were made by the exited ninja. Kiba, Hinata and Shino turned back around, and everybody was silent.

***

A large man walked on the stage at the bottom of the amphitheatre. He had very broad shoulders, his headband was used more as a head-scarf and he was wearing a long, black jacket. He looked quite scary, and very familiar. _'I know him from somewhere…' _I suddenly remembered the Chunin Exams, and how he was the examiner for the first exam. _'What was his name, dammit?! E… Ebi? Ibiki! That's his name! Ibiki Morino! How could I forget him… he was the examiner that passed Naruto (and the rest of our team) even though he didn't answer a single question!'_ Ibiki Morino was standing at the front, making a speech on the importance of these rules, and how if you broke them severely, you would be punished severely. It was all highly boring, as we had had this speech before, back at Konoha Ninja Academy by Iruka-sensei. So, most of us zoned out for the hour that we were in there for. I sometimes would snap back and hear single phrases like: "A shinobi is to never question their leading ninja." And "A shinobi must always put the mission first." But I hardly paid attention to anything else he said; in fact I think I fell asleep a few times, only to be nudged by Naruto to resume consciousness.

Soon the lecture was over, and people began stretching and filing out of the amphitheatre, only a little while after, it was only team 7, 8 and a few other shinobi from other villages. Kiba stood up, stretched and growled… "When are we going to do some fighting, then? I thought this was supposed to be a tournament? Say, Naruto, fancy a game of fisty-cuffs outside?"

"N-no! K-Kiba! The man just said that there is to be no f-fighting, apart from in d-designated b-battles!"

"Aw, Hina, you were actually listening to that crap?" Hinata looked slightly shocked at the use of a nickname, as well as the "swear" that Kiba had just used. Luckily, before anything else could happen, Kakashi-sensei came by to take us out to the dining area; we were all supposed to have lunch together with the rest of the shinobi that had come here.

"Hey! What about breakfast!?" Naruto exclaimed, shocked that he had already missed out on a meal today.

***

Kakashi took us to the dining hall where everybody else seemed to be, but, instead of there being lots of chairs and tables, like the amphitheatre, there were just lots and lots of cushions around the edge of the room, and dotted around in table-shapes in the middle. On the right wall, there was a serving window, where people came to receive their ready-made slop with rice. I could tell that this was going to be an interesting Tournament.

"Well, I guess I'll be seeing all of you later, Kurenai and I have to go eat with the rest of the Jounin. Bye!" Kakashi said gleefully before Kurenai and him poofed away. Something in the back of my mind told me that the Jounin had a much nicer meal then the Genin and Chunin. I turned around and walked with Sasuke, Naruto, Hinata, Kiba and Shino to the serving counter, everyone picked up a bowl of slop and rice and went to sit down. Everyone doesn't include Naruto.

"Oi! What the hell is this stuff??? Mashed up slugs? Where's the ramen? I can't eat this! Aw, man, where's an "Ichiraku Ramen Bar" when you need one?"

"Mou… Naruto! Come and sit down!" I saw an old woman come to the counter mumbling to herself before shouting:

"Ittai nani??? What is it??? Why are you shouting!?"

"I was complaining about the food! Obassan!" by then, every single pair of eyes had turned to face Naruto. It was just like to Chunin exams all over again. I sighed stood up and said:

"**Sumimasen**, obaasama!" I jogged over to Naruto and whispered to him; "Let's go sit down, please, everybody's looking at you." He shrugged my hand off, and said:

"Do you seriously expect me to eat this slop?"

"No. But you could at least be a little bit more polite about it, now say sorry to the nice lady, so we can sit down and eat. Please." I gave him a pleading look before he sighed and said:

"Shitsureishimashita, I shall go and eat now." Then bowed; the lady mumbled about Naruto being "such a nice boy" before shuffling off. I guided him back to the table we claimed, and it was only a couple of seconds until everybody had resumed conversation with each other and continued eating. _'That was a close one.'_ I thought before stuffing some clean rice into my mouth. There was a long silence at out table, before Kiba broke it by saying:

"Who knew that over the past year Sakura has turned into Naruto's keeper, she's the only one he'll listen to nowadays, ne?" Everybody looked at Kiba, and I noticed that a few of them nodded their heads slightly too. I was mortified! I wasn't trying to act as Naruto's keeper; I was just trying to keep _him_, and effectively _us_ out of trouble!

But before I could even open my mouth to retaliate, some massive guy hurled one of his chopsticks at Naruto. I had guessed he wasn't very skilled, as it was heading for a beeline straight past Naruto, but, I caught them anyway. Naruto was in the middle of stuffing some slop in his mouth, so he only saw me holding a chopstick. Son after he put two and two together, as I was death-glaring at some older shinobi that were laughing at us. One of them wiped the tears from their eyes and said "care to give us back our chopstick, little girl?" as the rest continued to laugh, even more hysterically.

I mumbled under my breath "_Bakayarou…_" before shaking my head, and giving them a stern "no," then promptly snapping it in half. A few of them realised what I had done, and exclaimed:

"Hey! Boss! She snapped your chopstick in half!" this was met with the rest of the crowd hushing to silence; as did everyone else in the dining hall. They didn't seem too tough, but I didn't want to break the rules, as Hinata stated earlier. The gang started getting up off the floor; they were all from the Land of the Waves- the land we had helped by guarding the bridge builder from assassins like Zabuza and the androgynous Haku.

"We weren't finished with that… give us some chopsticks, little girl, and we won't hurt you."

"I doubt you'd hurt me anyway, but, here you go." I threw them the chopstick which I had snapped in half. "There are your chopsticks back." My pure indifference to their malice seemed provocative in Kiba's point of view. It also, seemed to be provocative in the Land of the Waves shinobi too.

"Very funny, girl, don't say we didn't warn you and your friends." I decided to express as little emotion as truly possible whilst executing my next move. Unlike the rest of the ninja sat at our table, I was not fazed at all. Naruto, Kiba, Sasuke and I all got up fairly at the same time, but it looked as if Kiba was going to run away more then stay and fight. Hinata was too stunned to do anything, and Shino didn't see the need to stand up. The leader of the offending gang charged towards me, Naruto tried to push past to protect me, but, I stood steady, pushing him backwards before outstretching my arm to stop the guy charging towards me. It was such an un-Sakura thing to do; what I did next, I'm not surprised if I had blown my cover there and then. My outstretched hand met with my opponent, and stopped him, I was pushed back slightly because of his sheer weight, he would have had to have been at least two heads taller then me; I drew my fingers around his shirt, I could feel the chakra building up in my hand, before I released it in one massive burst, which I directed to the right of myself, thus, sending him pinwheeling off to the back wall (from the entrance). I smiled slightly, thinking about how big and macho he thought he was, until he was thrown through a wall by a "little girl". The rest of his gang were all stood there in shock, and were mumbling: "boss…?" to each other.

I took a quick glance round at Naruto and Sasuke before I took with a steady walking pace to the wall where the big guy had landed. Both Naruto and Sasuke's faces portrayed complete disbelief. I had been working on that move in secret with Kakashi-sensei since our first mission to the Land of the Waves; where we did special chakra-control training. Chakra control has always been my forte, so Kakashi decided to teach me that move. It had taken me quite a while to master it, but, it is quite a step up from walking up trees. I arrived at the wall; I bent down to level with his face. And whispered, only loud enough for him to hear, one of my mother's countless arguments, "_Never_, judge a book by its cover; it way just bite back twice as hard." I smirked to myself before offering a hand out to the guy, so no hard feelings were kept. Alas, the feeling was not mutual; he just pushed passed me and ran out, with all the rest of his moe boys. The silence lifted again, as everybody finished off eating.

I sighed before I started collecting all the spilt bowls that the rest of that group had left there. Naruto came rushing up to me, partly to help but mostly to congratulate me on "winning" and how he had never seen me fight that way before. Sasuke suddenly appeared next to me as well, and he asked when, where and who I learnt that from. I was sure that I had blown my cover; Sasuke was too clever not to notice that something was wrong. I shook off all of his questions, and went to go put all of the bowls away. I apologised to the woman, because some of the bowls were cracked, chipped and a couple of them were even smashed. I slipped out of the room while the rest of the leaf ninja were discussing the past event; although I do think that Hinata saw me escape, with her Byakugan, as she turned around briefly after I had left the room.

I didn't really know what to do next, if I didn't answer any of their questions it would seem suspicious, but I couldn't just tell them exactly who I am. I walked down the hallway, remembering which way we had gone before. But I had to stop, because the Land of the Waves shinobi were in my way.

***

"I don't want any trouble, boys." I told them forcefully.

"Yeah? Well we do; _little girl…_" some of them laughed at that remark. "There are nine of us, and only one of you, so this shouldn't take too long; we've already got a room in the infirmary waiting for you." The rest of them were chuckling to themselves maliciously as they took steps foreword, getting their kunai and various shuriken out of their arms bags. I heard loud footsteps from behind me; it seemed that little Hinata plucked up the courage to tell everyone I was gone.

"Hey! You guys! Don't you dare touch Sakura!" Lo and behold Naruto and the rest of them had appeared behind me, presumably from the dinner hall as well.

"Heh heh… this don't matter, guys!" one of them sneered, "they're still outnumbered!" My eyes narrowed at their foolishness.

"We may be outnumbered, but we are _not_ out-matched!" I started towards them, at quite a fast pace and smacked one of them round the head with the blunt head of a kunai. I spun round to witness Kiba and Naruto running foreword as well, to disarm and disorientate some of the other shinobi. I hopped onto one of the ninja's heads and danced straight past another two; they were dropping like files thanks to Naruto and Kiba, but seven of them decided to leave Naruto and Kiba alone, and pursued me all the way outside. I heard Naruto and the rest of them shouting as they followed the shinobi outside as well. I spun round throwing three kunai at my pursuers. Two more fell, which Naruto and Kiba easily jumped over; while the rest of the leaf village ninja caught up, I decided to use some taijustu.

I had been working on developing my own jutsu, and that was the perfect time to test them out. I decided to test out my own jutsu called "CHA Barrage" first; this included finding one of the opponents, delivering twenty fast punches at four different angles, then kicking them once, to disarm them, then once again, heightened with chakra to send them flying. I chose the one that seemed to laugh at me the most; the execution of the move was perfect, but, I needed to release more chakra to make him fly off further, as he only knocked down one of the trees he hit.

The rest of the battle was fairly easy; it seemed that we had left the wimps for last. They cowered in a huddle in the middle of the circle that we made, begging for mercy, and asking us not to harm them. I just chuckled to myself and walked back indoors; promptly bumping into Kakashi-sensei, who was looking very angry with me.


	5. Chapter 5

00:21, June 19th –eight days before the present time.

Village Hidden in the Leaves, Konoha.

Sakura Haruno's P.O.V.

It was the middle of the night. I was lying in bed, rubbing the bruise on my arm that Kakashi had given to me earlier that day- or really yesterday, as it had gone midnight. I closed my eyes. I remembered how angry and disappointed Kakashi-sensei had been earlier. Tears began to well up in the corners of my eyes, and they trickled down over my nose and fell onto my bed sheets. I turned over on the opposite side, to face Sasuke, and was surprised when I saw under the moonlight that he was still awake too.

"Sasuke…" He seemed surprised about my conscious presence as well, as he jolted suddenly in bed, and then turned over to face me as well. "Why is it, that, even though you can have any girl you want in the world, you push them away every day? I-if you don't mind me asking, that is…" I added the last bit quickly on at the end, so not to offend him if he took offence.

"Because… Sakura…" there was a long pause before he returned to talking. "Because I befriended a girl called Kagerou when I was three years old; she was the kindest and purest girl I have ever made contact with, and I only know now, that the feeling that I felt around her was true love. Back then I was too young and naive to recognise what that feeling was; she made me feel so happy and filled with joy. There has not been one single person on earth ever to make me feel that way apart from her, and I cherish the memories we shared together above everything." My silence alarmed him slightly, as I could see his face slightly tinted pink in the moonlight. I was so surprised that I couldn't breathe… _'Kagerou… he loves Kagerou…'_ I decided to pursue the topic with him a little longer by asking him:

"What happened to her…?"

"I presume she was killed along with the rest of my clan, you see, she wasn't a pure Uchiha, she was part of the Hyuga clan as well; a very talented kunoichi that had been trained from birth to be a ninja. I respected her talent, and I asked her to teach me many of her techniques. Her mother was the head of the Uchiha clan, so she, in fact was the heiress to both the clans she belonged to. Her mother was one of the most powerful shinobi that me and my family had ever been blessed to meet. Kagerou was trained by her mother, and acquired many of her skills including the Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique, in turn that she introduced to me so that my father could help me refine it."

I decided to play along, and humour how little he realised. "How did you first meet? I mean… wasn't she a princess? Did that make you a prince?" He let out a soft chuckle, and smiled, a pure smile that I hadn't seen him do in so long. That made me smile too.

"I first met her on the way to the Uchiha Ninja Academy; it was my first day, so I had never really travelled down that road before. Itachi, my older brother was walking me to school. The Academy was in the same part of the village as the noble's residence, so we had to walk past Kagerou's house to get there. I was walking slowly past the nobles gates when I heard a soft "hello there" from inside the residence. It startled me slightly, so I dropped all of my books; I looked over to see who made the sound, and it was a small girl with the most stunning eyes I have ever seen. She said "I'm sorry I made you jump and drop your books, I didn't mean to frighten you." And, well… I asked my brother to go on without me, and I stayed to talk with her. She didn't open the gates for me, as it was forbidden for her to let anyone apart from family in, so I stayed on one side of the gates, and she stayed on the other. We talked about lots of insignificant little things that weren't important at all. The one thing I remember most of all, is how she held out her hand to a passing butterfly, and it landed on her fingers; she then passed her hands in between the bars, and passed the butterfly to me. Of course within ten seconds it had flown away, but I found it completely amazing how she could charm animals like that. After that, we heard her mother calling from the top steps of her house, she then came down to see who her daughter was talking to. Her mother was beautiful as well; if she was still here, I can tell that she would have been the spitting image of her. Her mother invited me in, but Kagerou reminded me that I was on my way to the Ninja Academy; and that I was already very late. Kagerou and her mother offered to walk me the rest of the way, and they promised to tell the teachers not to reprimand me. That day, was one of the best days of my life."

"What did Kagerou look like…? I can't imagine what someone would look like that came from both the Uchiha and Hyuga clans. How long were the two of you friends?"

"Kagerou was naturally a very pretty girl, she had medium length hair, but one day she said she was going to grow it out especially for me. Here eyes were the colour of the ocean, a deep, sparkling blue. She had a smile that could turn the evilest of men good, and was very well mannered; I guess you'd expect that, being brought up by two clan leaders- having to be in contact with very noble people from a very young age. Her father did not live with her, but he came often to see her at least twice a week. And sometimes she would accompany him to peace-making ceremonies that her father had to attend with all the other countries. By the time she was four, she had been to every single hidden village there was. She had a very stable family life that I know of; both her parents adored her and each other. I was sometimes envious of her and her family, because of difficulties with my own; but I never let that get in the way of our friendship. As for the second question you asked, I met her when I was three, and my village, along with her were destroyed when I was seven."

I had heard every last one of his words, but, decided to leave the rest of interrogation until later on; so instead, I closed my eyes and pretended I had fallen asleep.

"Sakura…? Sakura, are you still awake?" Sasuke mumbled; he then proceeded to turn over in bed, and get on with his own much-needed sleep. As I closed my eyes, my mind drifted into a heavy slumber.

***

_I'm standing in the hallway inside the Tournament Grounds; I'm standing in front of room number 3-A. Kakashi-sensei is staring at me angrily in front of me. He gruffly grabs my arm, kicks room 3-A open, and throws me inside. I start to rub my arm, where he grabbed me is going to leave a bruise. _

_He slams the door shut. I feel frightened; Kakashi-sensei has known me and looked after me throughout my life here in the village hidden in the leaves, but I have never seen him so angry in my life. He takes slow steps towards me, I take slow steps backwards. Soon I hit the back wall in the room, and he is stood only half a metre in front of me. He stops, raises one hand; I flinch away in terror. He reaches past me, and lowers his mask, and lifts his_ _hitai-ate. I have only ever seen him do that when he is about to engage in battle with a very strong opponent. I start taking deep breaths in; I don't know what is going to happen next. I'm worried because he hasn't spoken to me yet. _

_He takes a small step foreword and puts both of his arms up against the wall, encasing me with his body. All I can smell is him…__ he smells like rain, honey, a lot like… a man… my eyelids flutter close, and then open again. His face is only inches away; I could feel his warmth against my face. His hand moves up, it's very close to my face, and before I know it… he slaps me hard on the cheek. I look up at him, shocked and raise my hand up to touch my cheek. It stings. His eyes narrow. _

"_I could have done much worse on you, Kagerou. Be warned. Don't get too cocky, or you might just screw up like your mother did. I don't want to see you getting into unnecessary fights here at all. Do you understand?" I can't open my mouth. I can't even make a sound. I feel tears beading in between my eyelashes. I close them and nod my head. I open my eyes, staring at the ground. Kakashi-sensei lifts his hand up again; I flinch away again, I think he's going to hit me again. Instead he lifts my chin up and looks into my eyes whilst saying: "I love you, OK? You are like the daughter I never had, and I couldn't bear to see you discovered and hurt because of your secret. OK? I'm doing this because I care about you."_

_I open my mouth to speak, to thank him to say "I love you too", but before I could do anything Kakashi pulls me towards him and shares a strong embrace with me. I can feel his wet tears on my back, as I look up at him, I can see his strained face, I kiss his cheek. "I love you too… __otouchan." I saw his smile spread across his face, a smile that I had never seen before. I push him away as I see the door slam open. Naruto, Kiba, Sasuke, Shino and Hinata appeared at the doorway. _

"_Sakura! There you are, we've been looking all over for you, what are you doing?" Naruto said as he looked between Kakashi-sensei and me, I looked up at Kakashi, and realised that his __hitai-ate and his mask were back in their usual place, and his eyes were wet with gone tears. I wiped my eyes as well. _

"_I just told her off for starting a fight, and now, for the rest of you, you broke the rules; and bee glad I'm not going to report all of you to Kurenai, because you broke a serious rule. If you will excuse me, I need to go and clean up your mess…" he walked past Naruto and the others and went outside._


	6. Chapter 6

10:17, June 20th –seven days before the present time.

Academy Centre, on the outskirts of Konoha.

Sakura Haruno/ Kiba Inuzuka/ Kakashi Hatake's P.O.V.

I woke up on the morning of June the 20th to find out that Naruto had been sleeping across Sasuke and my legs. They were completely numb; I couldn't move them at all. I sat up, rubbed my eyes and looked over at Sasuke; "g'morning" he said politely, he was lying in his bed, Naruto's lower half crushing his legs, with his hands behind his head, it looked as if he had been dozing there for a while.

"Good morning." I politely said back. 'He seems in a much better mood today…' I smiled to myself, thinking about the talk he and I shared last night. I turned my head to look back at Naruto; he was lying there, sprawled on his back with a bubble of snot offensively protruding from his left nostril. I screwed up my face and stuck my tongue out in disgust when I had a grate idea. I tenderly stroked his face… his whisker markings were much softer hen I had expected; he mumbled in his sleep:

"Oh… Sakura… that tickles!" I glanced over at Sasuke who chuckled slightly; I think he knew what I was going to do next… I drew back my hand thirty centimetres from his face, and then swiftly brought it back, quite hard. "Iteeeee-!!!" Naruto sprung bolt upright, and said "What was that for, Sakura?!"

"For making mine and Sasuke's legs numb, that's what!" Naruto looked over at Sasuke, and the imprint that he had left over both of our beds. "Don't just stand there! Help me up!" Naruto looked slightly apprehensive as he took my hand and jerked me upright; with no avail, I swiftly fell straight back down and onto my rump. There were a few seconds of silence before we all burst out laughing at our misfortune.

After a while, Sasuke and I began to get feeling back in our legs; we were soon able to get up and get dressed, just as Naruto had done a while before us. We waited for Kakashi-sensei to come and unlock the door for us, but he didn't come. We waited for over an hour for him, but he still didn't arrive. We were all sitting in the middle of the room, staring at the door, begging it to open itself. I was surprised Naruto hadn't started complaining yet; but sure enough…

"Something's wrong. Kakashi-sensei is usually late, but, never this late. I'm going to break the door down, don't get in my way!" I opened my mouth to tell him to wait a while longer; it was too late, he had already summoned a clone to aid him with his Rasengan technique. Sasuke and I got up as we watched him charge at the door, blowing it to smithereens and revealing a very battered up and bloody hallway. "nani wa ittai…" Naruto's surprise was mirrored in Sasuke's and my faces also.

"It looks as if there has been a fight... what the hell happened here?!" I immediately went over to team eights door. There were a few scratch marks on it, but it didn't look like it had been broken into. I banged on the door once,

"Is anybody in there?!" I shouted into the wood.

"Sakura? Is that you? Open the door!" was the reply. I did as I was told after a heads-up:

"Stand back!" I summoned a lot charka into my hand, just as I had done yesterday with that punk in the dining hall and smashed into the door whilst releasing it all at once. The door flew backwards, and Kiba's head popped out from the left of the doorframe.

"Whoa, whoa… I hardly had enough time to step outta the way! Hey-" Kiba looked outside as Hinata and Shino came out of their hiding places. He pushed past me before saying "What in the world happened here?" All three of them were still in their pyjamas- 'who knew that Shino slept in a floor-length trench-coat?'

"A fight, that's what… it seems like one of those "fight to the death" ones too." Sasuke replied.

"Go and get dressed, and we'll meet you outside; I need to figure out what's going on." I instructed, Kiba seemed a little displeased about me taking charge, but he nodded in agreement anyway.

I turned around nodded my head to Sasuke and Naruto as well all sped down the hallway and through the massive white doors.

***

It was very bright outside, so it took a while for all of out eyes to adjust; when we had, we were shocked to see what was in front of us. I blinked twice before stepping forward to get a closer look; there was a massive pile of dead bodies on the ground- piled up a metre high. With a glinting katana impaled through the middle of them. On the hilt of the long sword was a note: the handwriting was scrawled in blood, so I couldn't read it; I was about to take a step closer when I noticed a trip-wire at thigh-height only thirty centimetres away. 'It's a trap!' I thought, but, before I knew it Naruto was running towards the mass pile of bodies; saying "Hey… what does that note say!"

It happened in slow motion, I saw his upper leg go through the wire, I saw him look down and look back up at the hundreds of exploding seals that were floating down like doomed confetti. I acted on instinct, not common sense; before I knew it I had grabbed Naruto in my arms and was performing the Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin.

***

I heard some shouting coming from outside, I looked around at Hinata and Shino; who were dressed and ready to go. We ran out at full speed down the hallway and outside; it was bright, but we all arrived there just in time to see Naruto and Sakura standing in front of a massive pile of dead bodies. This, in itself was enough to make us confused, and worried. But, what happened next made us even more bewildered.

Naruto must have tripped a wire or something, because loads and loads, there must have been hundreds of exploding seals floating down all around them. Sasuke shouted something, but then all I saw was Sakura grabbing a hold of Naruto, and doing one of Neji's jutsu! Before any of us could say, or even do anything, the explosion came, and blew Sasuke back. I caught him, but the blast shook the ground, so we all fell over. I shook my head- the blast was tremendous, any normal person would have been blown to smithereens. Sakura should have been blown to smithereens…

I looked up, and saw Sakura finishing the jutsu and letting go of Naruto- who in turn fell onto his knees, probably from shock. There was a massive crater in the ground where her chakra had carved a hole- it reminded me of the final Chunin Exam when it was Neji vs. Naruto. It was his jutsu, no doubt about it. It was then when I realised we were dealing with an impostor, Sakura could never have deflected an attack of that magnitude, and especially not with that move- it was exclusive to the Hyuga clan, which she wasn't a part of.

***

"Kuso…" I muttered beneath my breath, "that can't have looked normal…" 'Kuso, kuso, kuso!' I looked down at my clothes, they were charred around the hems, and there were scorch marks all over them. I had never performed that jutsu before, I had witnessed it many times before, but I had never actually tried it, it was no wonder that I hadn't exerted enough chakra; the jutsu was effective, but weak compared to the others I had seen. 'If I had practiced it before, my chakra wouldn't have let some of the heat in…' I looked round and saw Kiba and the others getting up from the ground… Sasuke was there, he looked scorched as well, 'thank god he's alright…' I thought.

As I was looking in that direction, my eyes wondered towards Kiba's. He looked extremely angry. 'Oh… I hope he's not going to have a go at Naruto for doing something stupid again…' He stood with his shoulders broad, staring into my eyes with malice. 'Wait… shit, he's angry with me!' He ran towards me with tremendous speed, shouting "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" I took a step backwards, shocked, and then I prepared myself for his impact.

"I don't know what you are talking about!" I sneered back at him, annoyed that he figured it out. We clashed, and I cupped my hand around his speeding fist, and stopped it dead in its tracks. He leaned in closer to me, narrowed his eyes before saying:

"You look like Sakura, you smell like Sakura… but you're not Sakura! Where the hell is she and what have you done to her?!" I shouted back,

"I've done nothing to her! I AM SAKURA! What are you talking about???" My only option was to lie through my teeth; I couldn't just tell everyone what was going on. Naruto was standing there, petrified. I think he didn't know what to believe anymore. I pushed Kiba from me with extreme force, his feet parted with the ground, before he landed back down, carving two paths through the mud in front of the Academy Centre. I look round at Naruto; I had to at least try to get him on my side, I gave him a pleading look, but he just stared blankly at the ground. "Naruto…? Naruto! Please, help me-" But before I could say anything else I saw Kiba charging towards me once more.

"Don't listen to her Naruto! She's not Sakura!" Kiba directed at him, I looked at Sasuke, and the rest behind him. Hinata was in tears, and Shino was just staring at me. But, Sasuke, he looked betrayed. I think he thought that the talk we had last night was to get information out of him, or something; he was just standing there, looking at me his face masked with disgust and hatred. Before I knew it, Kiba was one and a half metres, one metre, then half a metre away from me. I looked down and I saw the kunai in his hands. I was mortified 'is he really ready to kill me now…?' I heard someone shout as I looked into Kiba's eyes, watching them narrow as he jammed the kunai in between the two halves of my rib cage. The cartilage snapped, but he still pushed it down further, it was as if he was searching for my heart.

My vision blurred. I felt numb. Everybody I once knew was shouting. I looked up at Kiba before I fell.

***

I had been called into a meeting with the rest of the Jonin concerning the murder of nearly all of the Genin from the Village Hidden in the Clouds. I looked up as one of the Jonin from Suna stood up to talk.

"We must not be hasty to point the finger- although the Village Hidden in the Sand has had quite a history with the Village Hidden in the Clouds; we assure you that it was not our ninja that committed this terrible act. We are here to-" I heard an almighty blast, coming from the direction where the pile of bodies that we had found earlier was. All the Jonin rose to their feet. I looked to my left to signal Kurenai to follow me, three other Jonin from three other Hidden Villages followed us; 'at least we'll have back-up' I thought.

We raced at super speed through the hallways; we were all the way on the other side of the building. The tremor had shaken everything up: some of the doors were hanging from their hinges, while un-suspecting Genin and Chunin were collecting at the doorways, to find out what had happened. One of them caught Kurenai's arm, she was a Genin from the Village Hidden in the Clouds. She couldn't have been more then ten; she looked up at Kurenai with a worried look on her face and said:

"Hey! What's up with the explosion? And where's Raidon-chan?!" Kurenai stopped dead in her tracks; she always had a soft spot of children. What was even worse is that the girl was the only survivor from this genocide attack- everybody else from the Village Hidden in the Clouds was dead outside the front of the building. And what screwed up things even more is that she was asking for a person called "Raidon-chan"- which means "Thunder God"… which probably means that he is dead out side with the rest of the ninja from the Land of Lightning. I think Kurenai was also clued in on this… She gave me that look that only a woman could, and bent down to the little girl and said:

"We're just going to find out what's happening. I'll tell you if we find Raidon or not, OK sweetie?" She turned around to one of the shinobi from the other village. "I want you to take this young girl to the conference room, where she can be watched over by various shinobi from other villages. No harm is to come to this girl. Do you understand?" She narrowed her eyes as she waited for his reply.

"I understand, Yuhi-san." He nodded as he took the little girl in his arms, and ran off. Kurenai started off again to the source of the explosion, it seemed that she was even more determined to find out what was happening then the rest of us; it took the rest of the Jonin and I a few seconds to catch up with her. We began nearing room 3-A; the bodies were found outside the entrance that we were closest to.

My heart skipped a beat at the sight we saw when we rounded the corner. I was standing in the hallway only about a metre away from rooms 3-A, 3-B, 2-A and 2-B were; Kurenai and the rest of team eight had been staying in both the rooms marked with a two. On the opposite side of the hall from rooms 2-A and 2-B were 3-A and 3-B, where my team and I had been staying. But, when I looked round the bend of the hallway, I froze in my tracks, just as Kurenai did beside me. I stared at the doors to 2-A and 3-A. They were completely demolished. The door to 3-A looked as if it had been ripped off in a hurricane, and the room to 2-A was smashed to smithereens on the floor inside the doorframe. Kurenai let out a small gasp; it seemed as if she had been holding her breath.

I ran over to room 3-A and looked inside, just as Kurenai did for room 2-A. I was filled with mixed emotions when I saw inside: relieved to see that the inside of the room was still intact, worried and distraught to find that Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were not in there. I turned around, and saw Kurenai standing behind me.

"They're gone too, huh? I'm sure they're OK, Kakashi." I nodded, forcing myself to believe her; but something in the back of my mind was telling me that something was very wrong. _'No… Kagerou… I can't let the same thing happen to you as what happened to Obito. I'll endanger my mission for your wellbeing.'_ I ran outside, not waiting for Kurenai and the other Jonin.

I arrived outside just in time to witness Kiba charging towards Sakura with a kunai in his hands. I couldn't move. The whole thing was unfolding in front of my eyes, but I couldn't do anything. I willed Naruto to do something, but, he also was just standing there, in a trance-like state. I turned my head slowly to the right, Hinata and Shino were standing there, Hinata fighting Shino's grip, screaming at the top of her lungs for Kiba to stop. It was then when I saw Sasuke. He was standing there, his hands in his pockets, as if he was watching some pre-schoolers acting out a play. I finally snapped out of it, everything started moving at normal speed again; Sakura was falling to the ground, I couldn't tell if she was unconscious or not, but I didn't want to take any chances. I propelled myself through the air, and caught her before she hit the ground, here eyes were open, and they still had life in them, so, I calmed myself slightly.

I lay her down on the ground, before grabbing a hold of Kiba's ankle and throwing him into a nearby tree; _'Kurenai will kill me for that…'_ I thought to myself. It seemed as if Naruto had finally snapped out of it as well, because he came bounding up, with Sasuke not far behind. I looked round, as Shino's grip finally faltered and Hinata came running up towards me: a complete wreck. I saw Kurenai, she was staring into space, she'd lost it. She loved team 8 as much as I loved to teach team 7; she never imagined that Kiba could do such a thing. I think she was starting to believe that it had been him that had committed the act of genocide. I didn't think so, but I still didn't know what provoked this attack.

I looked back at Kiba; he was rubbing his head at the base of the tree I had thrown him at, with Akamaru licking his hand for support. "_'Ch…_" I said, in scorn; before I looked down to asses Sakura's injury. It was worse then I had believed. Her chest was bleeding and the kunai looked as if it was lodged in between her ribs. I decided to pull it out; I couldn't work on her injury if it was still in there.

She screamed. A long, terrifying scream that made my hear break as I looked upon her. That was when I realised her image was flickering, it was changing from Sakura to Kagerou and back a few times before it settled on Kagerou. I was worried; her Genjutsu had never failed her before, and definitely not in front of so many people. I started un-zipping her dress before Naruto dropped to his hands and knees, by my side, and burst into tears at the image of Sakura turning into an unidentified girl in front to his eyes. Sasuke just stared. He looked at her, from head to toe; he became very pale before turning around, and sprinting for the forest. "_Shit!_" I exclaimed before turning around and saying to Kurenai: "Follow him, _now_! Make sure you lead him back to the Village Hidden in the Leaves! Don't let him out of your sight!" I was worried. I was sure that Sasuke had recognised her, she was the spitting image of her mother that was for sure, he would have to be blind not to realise who she was. Kagerou hadn't stopped screaming, although her throat was raw and dry, and hot wet tears were streaming down her face. 'I can't even begin to imagine how painful it must be.' Her screaming was lessening now, but I wasn't gone. I saw Kiba out of the corner of my eye jogging up to see what was happening. He stopped behind Naruto and I heard the faintest whisper come out of his mouth:

"I _was_ right… she's not Sakura…" I gritted my teeth behind my mask- _'this kid is really getting on my nerves…' _I poured some healing medicine over the gaping hole in her chest; she stopped screaming for five seconds then started again, twice as loud, this time arching her back in agony. I had to keep her still- I couldn't to the jutsu with her moving like that. I elbowed Naruto in the ribs;

"Hey! Naruto, stand over there and hold her shoulders down! I'll hold down her legs!" Naruto looked at me before wiping the tears from his eyes and nodded, he began to get up, but before he could do as I instructed, Kiba grabbed his shoulder.

"Naruto! What the hell are you doing! She's not Sakura, remember?! You're helping an impostor!" Naruto shrugged him off,

"She may not be Sakura, but she wasn't doing anything wrong; you, on the other hand, stabbed her without knowing if she really _was_ Sakura or not. That in itself is something wrong." Naruto hopped over to Kagerou's head, and grabbed a hold of her raised shoulders and pushed them back down again. She was still wriggling, so I sat straddle across her legs, whilst healing her internal wounds. I was not a medical ninja, so I wasn't sure exactly what to do, but I tried my best. I think by then Kagerou was depleted of chakra, as her eyes kept on closing; at one point I had to slap her cheek to stop her from falling unconscious. It didn't work, her body became relaxed, her head lolled in Naruto's hands and her breathing became very shallow. I leant down, to check if her breathing was steady, and it was. I picked her up, and hugged her tightly. I couldn't bear to see her dead.

I looked up at Naruto who was sitting opposite me, crouched, staring blankly at my embrace with Kagerou; I decided not to say anything. I got up with her in my arms, and turned around to face Kiba, Hinata and Shino. Kurenai is following Sasuke right now, so I will take charge of team eight in her absence.

"Who is she?" Kiba bluntly asked emotionless, he seemed more interested in gaining information then actually finding out about Kagerou.

"That is none of your business." I narrowed my eyes at Kiba as he uttered a low growl. I looked at Hinata; I think she seemed to recognise Kagerou; although I wasn't sure, as Hinata cries about everything. "We are going back to The Village Hidden in the Leaves; this place has become too dangerous for any of us to stay." I turned around, and ran past Naruto with Kagerou in my arms. Luckily they all respected me enough to do what I said, and not question me; otherwise I would be faced with four temperamental fourteen-year-olds.

***

The journey back to The Village Hidden in the Leaves was relatively easy, only hindered by some slight rain on the way back. I learnt later in a letter from the Academy Centre that it was, in fact some Chunin from Suna that had committed the genocide; they were to be executed in the Village Hidden in the Clouds a week from today. I managed to deliver Kagerou to the infirmary, and because of my connections with the ANBU I was able to get them to guard Kagerou whilst I went to go and find Tsunade-sama. Luckily I found her whilst she was still sober; she seemed upset that I was back so early, and was distraught about the information I brought to her about Sakura.

"Wait… So you're telling me, that that pink-haired-pipsqueak is actually the daughter of a legendary ninja… in disguise? Not only the daughter of a legendary ninja, but she has been believed to be dead for the past seven years!"

"That pretty much sums it up… yes." I tried my hardest to act as sweetly as possible towards her- she is pretty scary when she's angry. But I was running out of time, Kagerou was running out of time…

"So… what do you expect me to do with her? You said you healed her out on the battle field."

"Not really… I tried my best, but I am not a specialised medic-nin. I am afraid that she might die soon if a proper medic-nin doesn't take a look at her." Tsunade closed her eyes, for a moment I thought she was going to refuse; she tilted her head back up at me, and looked straight into my eyes;

"Well, what are we waiting for?! We're going to need all the time we possibly have!" I grinned, and was about to say thank you, but she got up, and sped out. I ran after her, and in the hallways of the Hokage's office building, she met lots of people who asked if she was coming to meetings and such, but she completely ignored them; until she rounded a corner and found Shizune and Tonton walking towards us. "Shizune!" Shizune yelped in surprise at Tsunade's harshness and stepped backward before replying:

"Y-yes Tsunade no hime!" Tsunade put both her hands on her hips and said:

"Cancel my schedule for today; I need to do something very important." Shizune's eyes widened at this news.

"Whaaa-? Tsunade-sama! You have that meeting with your advisors this afterno-"

"This is very important Shizune! I must do this; I thought I could trust you!" Shizune gulped before saying:

"Y-yes Tsunade no hime." and walking straight past me, carrying Tonton.

I looked at Tsunade while we carried on out journey to the hospital; we were running down to the infirmary; villagers were watching us run, I passed Ino Yamanaka and nearly missed her massive bouquet that she was presumably delivering. "Hey! Kakashi-sensei! Is Sakura back yet?"

"I'm sorry, I can't talk now." I replied to her in a stern tone, and carried on running, I looked back, and I saw her facial features drop as she watched me run off. Tsunade and I finally reached the infirmary, and as we got to the door, we saw a nurse trying desperately trying to get past one of the ANBU.

"Please, sir, let me in! This patient hasn't been registered on the roster yet, and that means she cannot receive any treatment!" The ANBU merely shook his head at the request, and then turned to see Tsunade and I arrive.

"Register her as Sakura Haruno, age, fourteen." I said to the nurse.

"Sakura Haruno? Why, isn't she the pink-haired girl that would come and visit Lee-san and Uchiha-san back after the Chunin exams? She was here a lot, please; tell me if she's OK."

"She won't be if you keep on wasting her time like this! Come on Kakashi-san!" The ANBU stepped out of the way to let us in, but, stepped in front of the nurse again, not letting her past. She sighed and walked off. I'm sure she was just trying to be helpful, but at this time she wasn't being very.

Tsunade didn't waste her time when she stepped I the room, she told the three other ANBU to get out, and that they weren't needed inside anymore. They all promptly left. She immediately got to work on assessing the wound, how long it would take to heal naturally, if there was any permanent internal damage… and so on. I didn't realise I had been holding my breath until I began to feel very light-headed and almost collapsed.

"Kakashi! Get a hold of yourself! I don't want to have to operate on you as well!" Tsunade reprimanded. A while had passed, and I had been reading my book on a chair by the door. That was when I heard shouting from outside. My blood froze inside my body, then I realised it sounded like children's voices, those much the same as Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. It seemed that the ANBU were still outside, guarding the door, and obviously not letting Naruto or Sasuke in. I decided that maybe, it was time for them to stop being left in the dark. I would have to wait and see if Kagerou would let me tell them who she is, but I don't see the harm in knowing that she's OK.

I got up and opened the door, to be met with two very angry Genin.

"What the hell is up with all of this, Kakashi-sensei?! Why are you stopping us from getting in? We just want to see our friend in the infirmary, look! I even brought her some flowers!" Naruto wasn't lying, he held up a small bouquet of three flowers: a daffodil, a lily and a white rose. Any flower arranger would shriek in horror at the horrible arrangement he had made, but it made me smile at his endeavours.

"Does this mean we're allowed in?" Sasuke drawled. He hadn't come as equipped; he didn't have any flowers for Kagerou.

"Oh, Sasuke, where did you run off to back at the Academy? I had to go and send Kurenai after you." Sasuke stared dismally at me; I knew he wasn't going to answer me. I sighed. "You better come in, Naruto; you need to deliver those flowers. And Sasuke… I think it would be better if you stay out here." His eyes widened with shock as he watched me let Naruto past, and slammed the door in his face. I opened it again swiftly to say: "Oh, and, can you tell Hinata to come here as quickly as possible. Thanks Sasuke." I smiled briefly before I slammed the door shut again.

I turned around to find Naruto standing in the same place he had been when I let him in. It seemed as if he didn't really know how to deliver the flowers. I heard shouting outside again as I looked at Tsunade, who had finished her examination, and was turning around to face Naruto. I stepped closer to him, and gave him a little push in the right direction. He looked back over his shoulder at me and smiled, embarrassed. I looked up at Tsunade, and she smiled at me too. The banging stopped, and I looked out of the little window, and saw that Sasuke was gone. _'I hope he went to get Hinata…'_ I thought to myself. I turned back around, and I saw Naruto slowly stepping towards the bed, Tsunade decided to step away to the side, at the foot of the bed, not to get in Naruto's way.

He had reached the bed. I walked over, and stood behind him. Naruto stared at Kagerou, her face mostly, but her hair too. He raised the hand with the flowers in it to put the flowers in the vase that was on everybody's bedside-table in the Konoha infirmary. Once he had placed the flowers in there, he solemnly said:

"I'm not sure who you are… and I have a feeling that I'm not going to get many answers soon… but, I know that you are a good person, because you protected me from the exploding seals back at the Tournament… and that is enough for me to know that you aren't a bad person like Kiba said." I looked up at Tsunade, who was portraying mixed feelings: admiration, sadness, anger, pain… I closed my eyes. I admire how Naruto can forgive a person so easily. That was before he turned around and asked me:

"So, where is Sakura, Kakashi-sensei?" I sighed, and closed my eyes; I was trying to avoid this question…

"She's lying right there… Naruto." Naruto frowned at my reply; he seemed confused, as he should be.

"No… that's not the Sakura I know… _my_ Sakura has short, pink hair…" I sighed and looked at Tsunade for condolence. She merely shook her head.

"Naruto… please… It's too hard for me to explain, but that girl lying there in that bed is Sakura Haruno, even if she doesn't look like what you're used to." Before Naruto or I could say anything else, I heard a knock at the door. Tsunade, Naruto and I all looked up at the doorway; I went over to the window to see who was there. One of the ANBU had knocked to get our attention, because Sasuke had returned with Hinata.


	7. Chapter 7

04:02, June 20th –seven days before the present time.

Infirmary, Village Hidden in the Leaves

Kakashi Hatake/ Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga's P.O.V.

I opened the door to meet a pouty Sasuke and a blushing, worried-looking Hinata. "Ah, thank you Sasuke, for bringing Hinata here; hello Hinata, I'm glad you could make it." Sasuke and Hinata both looked very confused at my cheeriness. I was trying to stay happy, the last thing I needed was for them to get all upset because I'm worried. "Well, it's not use standing out there, come in, come in!" Sasuke seemed wary of me as he and Hinata walked passed me. I closed to door, and walked past them to stand in the middle of the room. I wasn't afraid of Sasuke trying to pull anything, as Tsunade was here… and, well, she'd break his back in two seconds if she thought he was going to endanger Kagerou.

"Hinata, do you know why I have specifically asked you to come here?" My tone immediately changed to one with cold undertones. Hinata was afraid of me, I could tell, she was standing in a timid position, with both of her hands drawn to her chest.

"I-I th-think so Kaka-Kakashi-sensei…" here eyes wondered to the upper right corner of the room: a sign of lying.

"Why are you here then, Hinata?" I pestered.

"W-well… I th-think I know the person K-Kiba-kun st-stabbed today…" I raised an eyebrow; she had caught on.

"Oh? And what makes you think that?" I continued.

"I r-recognise h-her from wh-when I was a little ch-child, Kakashi-sensei…"

"When?" I inquired.

"I th-think I saw her b-back when I was very y-young a few times: three times w-when I became three, and a few other occasions… I b-believe her to be m-my half-sister, Kakashi-sensei, m-my oneesama…" I smiled. She knew exactly what was going on… she wasn't as much of a failure as her father made her out to be. I glanced quickly at Sasuke. His emotions were oxymoron. He didn't know what to do, his face betrayed his emotions. I could tell he was trying to hide his ecstasy, but at the same time I could see he cold, hard heart-ache that was radiating from his body. He looked up at Kagerou; I could read his expressions like a book. It wasn't just a crush on Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga, it was much more, and he understood the difference between crush and love. Crushes end soon and it doesn't hurt much, but love, it never ends. You can never forget the person you love.

"Good. Well, at least you recognise your relatives, Hinata," I smiled at her. "But, please, tell me if you have told anybody about this… family-wise… I won't blame you if you have."

"A-anou… I have t-told a few p-people… t-they only w-wanted to know what h-happened, Kakashi-sensei. I don't think anybody b-believed me anyway…" She whimpered as I frowned at her. I sighed turned around and said:

"Tsunade-sama, what's the situation?" She took a step foreword from her perch on the windowsill.

"She had some internal bleeding, around some of the vital organs in her chest, but, I managed to fix that no problem. All that's left is her external wound, I can't heal that now or it will scar, I'll give her a sedative, she mustn't move for the next three days, or she will be in risk of upsetting the healing process. I have to go fetch the sedative from my stores, I'll be right back." She disappeared in a puff of smoke. I hadn't noticed Sasuke creeping up towards the bed until he came into my peripheral vision. I looked at him. He looked as if he was in a trance-like state… I guess I would have been too if I was him. The pain of believing your one true love is dead, and you will never, ever see her again is simply intolerable. With every second the pain increases tenfold, making the person crippled under it's weight. It tortures the person every moment. It makes the person cry every day, but sometimes the person doesn't cry outside, the person cries inside. That is the cause of the coldness he has, the coldness that he shares with everyone he meets.

The irony, how the person he loves undoubtedly was actually the person he pushed away the most. I felt sad inside for him, and guilt that I could have told him that all of his fears were simply constructed around one, massive illusion.

Tsunade-sama had come back; now, she held two vials of pink-ish fluid in her hands. She saw me looking at both of them.

"I don't know how strong she is, if I give her a too smaller dose, it might have no effect on her at all, so I brought another just in case she's as powerful as everybody has made her out to be." She walked over to Kagerou and opened her mouth with her thumb, unscrewed the cork of one of the vials and poured it into her mouth. She then turned her back onto Kagerou, and faced us while saying: "No need to thank me…" and smiled childishly. "I need to stay here a while, in case I need to administer more sedative, in case she wakes up, so, just carry on as normal; pretend I'm not here."

That's exactly what I did. "So… seeing as I wasn't there for the whole fight… do one of you mind telling me exactly what happened…?" Naruto cleared his throat from behind me. I turned to hear him out.

"Well… Kiba and Sakura were having a little bit of a tiff…"

"I know that, but how did it start?" I interjected.

"I was just getting to that!" Naruto snapped, defensively. "Well… once Sakura and I had broken everybody out from their rooms, we went outside, where the trail of blood and scratches were leading. We didn't know what to expect when we got there, so we were very careful. Heh, I kind-of goofed up a little, because I tripped a wire protecting that mound of… bodies… and a million of those exploding seals came floating down from the trees. Sakura saw them before I did, and well… saved me from the explosion."

"How?" I asked; intent on knowing more.

"She did that weird jutsu that Neji used on me in the Chunin exams last year."

"What?" I didn't understand what he was saying… _'What jutsu?'_

"A-anou… Kakashi-sensei… I think he is t-talking about E-Eight Trigrams Palms H-Heavenly Spin." I just stared at Hinata when she said it.

"Wait, what? You're not saying that Kagerou used Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin to save Naruto, are you? That's impossible…"Hinata and Naruto both nodded in agreement. I opened my mouth to say something else, but I heard a groan behind me, and then a thud. Everybody, except for Hinata who was rooted to the spot, petrified, ran to Kagerou's bedside. Tsunade was startled by the sound, and dropped her second vile of sedative.

Kagerou had tried to get up, but had been stopped by the extreme pain emanating from her chest and slumped back in bed. We all looked at her, she looked back up, her facial expression was confused, and tortured. I was worried, Tsunade was worried…

"Sasuke, Naruto; I need you to retrieve a phial of sedative from my desk, go!" I was the confused one now, why did she send both of them away? Surely it would only take one person to retrieve a vial of sedative. Then, I realised what she was doing- it was a technique only used by the ANBU Black Ops; Temporary Paralysis Technique. Kagerou softly closed her eyes for a second, but Tsunade seized the moment by lifting up her hand, all her fingers recoiled apart from the first and middle fingers. She then proceeded to jab Kagerou's forehead in one swift movement. Kagerou's body relaxed and Tsunade let out a deep sigh. She turned around to wait for Sasuke and Naruto to come back, and when she made eye-contact with Hinata, she whimpered and shut her eyes tight.

"Oh, yes… I forgot about you… don't tell anybody of what you just saw, do you understand. Or you'll be in extremely big trouble with me… and believe me; you really do _not_ want to be in trouble with me." Tsunade said menacingly, and then let out a hearty chuckle.

"Tsunade-sama… you don't think that you sometimes… over do it?" She immediately halted her chuckling, narrowed her eyes and then slowly turned her head to look at me. "Uh… I take that back." Her eyes narrowed further before looking over to the door where Sasuke, then Naruto came bounding in. They were both panting hard, and Naruto bent over wheezing. '_It seems as if they've let their rivalry get in the way of common sense… again…'_ Sasuke handed the vial to Tsunade-sama who did the same as she had done before.

I turned around to face Hinata while I formulated a plan in my head. "Naruto, Sasuke, please can you leave, I need to speak to Hinata without you here." Hinata looked up at the usage of her name. "I will have the ANBU remain here until I return- that means that neither of you will be allowed in. Ask any of the ANBU to pass on any messages or gifts," I looked at Naruto whilst I said that. Everybody except for Hinata left. I walked up to her, "Hinata, I need you to come back here in exactly two days to pick up Kagerou… I'm sure she will have woken up by then, I will give you more information on the day." Hinata nodded in approval, and I dismissed her, after saying, "Oh, and spread some more roomers about Kagerou's arrival around your family when you get home, not too many, mind you!"

***

It had been two days since Kagerou was hospitalised. The ANBU had been needed on various missions since then, so, occasionally I would have to fill in for them, standing guard myself. It was now June the 22nd, only a day before the family reunion I had planned. _'Kagerou will hate me for this…' _I thought as I turned a page of my favourite book. I had planned a whole family reunion with Hinata; it was going to be a surprise for everybody. I had bumped into Ino yesterday, and I had requested for her to make a yukata, with the help of Hinata. Ino asked me who it was for, and I said a relative of Hinata's, who was coming to stay. I also prepared for Kagerou to go and get… prettied-up… before the reunion with Ino, seeing as she was one of those girls that were all about their looks and would know a lot more about "how to make yourself look pretty" then me… hopefully.

I was sitting outside the door, reading _Icha Icha Paradise_, when I heard some movement in the room behind me. I decided to go in there stealthily, in case there was another shinobi trying to kidnap Kagerou. I made the hand signs: tiger  boar  monkey, and poofed into the medical room. My whole body relaxed when I saw that it was just Kagerou in there, and that nobody was trying to harm or take her anywhere. There were always so many dangers that would show their ugly faces if she was ever to reveal her true identity. The Akatsuki were one of them… with Itachi still leading them and on the loose, I'd hate to know what he'd try and do to the one kunoichi that evaded his genocide; I have reason to believe that Itachi took a secret interest in Kagerou, maybe he could see her hidden power at such a young age… maybe it was more a love interest, who knows. But I remember that Itachi was determined to have a fair fight with Kagerou, even though she was so much younger. Another danger is that word will spread all over the land, and there will be many powerful shinobi interested in her power (not excluding the Akatsuki, or Orochimaru) and they would come to either assassinate Kagerou, in fear of her turning against them; or some shinobi might want her ally with them, and try to force her onto their side. How unfortunate that she is such a uniquely talented kunoichi.

Kagerou had obviously sensed my presence as she spun around to see who was there; she looked as if she had just seen a ghost, or her own reflection, most probably. I walked towards her, I stumbled slightly- I hadn't slept in forty-eight hours, I had to stay awake to guard the door.

"Kakashi-sensei… what happened? I-I remember the fight with Kiba… wait, how long was I asleep? I sort-of remember a lot of things, but I'm not sure if they were just dreams… was Tsunade no hime here? Where are Naruto and Sasuke?" She opened her mouth to say something else… she was talking so fast I couldn't keep up with her, I was glad she was OK, at least. I leant down and hugged her tightly.

"Everything's fine, don't worry about anything, Naruto and Sasuke visited you once, but they were restrained from seeing you anymore… and Tsunade was here, she finished healing whatever I couldn't do on the field."

"How long was I asleep for…? Kakashi-sensei…" Her tone seemed to have adjusted slightly, because her breathing was normal, and she wasn't talking so fast. She hugged me back, and rested her head against y shoulder. I closed my eyes. "Daisuki datteba yo… Kakashi-sensei…" She took a deep breath in before pushing me away, and looking up into my eyes. "Kakashi-sensei… what's going to happen now? What about my father… and Hinata?" She sighed and looked dismally at the floor.

"You have been asleep for two days, because of the sedative that Tsunade-sama gave you, for your own safety."

"Does Tsunade know about me now… who I am?" I nodded. "What am I going to do…?" She clutched her chest; I suspect that it was still hurting.

"I have arranged a family reunion with your father, and the rest of the Hyuga clan." She stared at me in astonishment; I knew that she wasn't going to take it lightly.

"But… you know how risky it is merely revealing myself to people like Sasuke and Naruto… and a whole clan now too?!" I put my hand on her shoulder.

"It's for the best. I'm sure your father will want to see you after all these years. You've put him in misery and turmoil for seven whole years since your apparent "death" .Do him a favour, and show yourself to him. Make him happy again."

"I couldn't possibly show myself to him… he's a changed man… he's moved on in life, he has a new family, and a new outlook on life." She looked at the ground; I saw a tear roll across her cheek and "plik" on to the floor.

"He's only a changed man, because you made him that way… he only became so cold and un-loving to his new family because he lost two of the most important people in his life… can't you see? Anyway…" I lifted her chin up, and wiped the tears away from her face. "Once he sees you perform the Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin, I'm sure he'll forgive you." I gave her a sweet smile, "come on… you have a fitting for a traditional Hyuga yukata with seamstress Ino, and her advisor Hinata." Kagerou looked up at me, and gazed into my eyes with her deep, obsidian pupils. Her eyes were beautiful… and unique, like herself. Her stare was interrupted up a soft, wavering knock on the door. _'That must be Hinata…'_ I thought.

I opened the door, and, as sure as I was, Hinata was standing there, her hands drawn up to her chest and in a timid stance again. "Kakashi-sensei…" she looked down at the ground. "I-I am h-here like y-you asked…"

I smiled genuinely at her, "Ah, good. Just in time, too! Kagerou only woke up a few minutes ago." Hinata looked surprised.

"I-is that s-so, Kakashi-sensei?" She inquired; she seemed to take more of an interest from then on.

***

I turned around to see Kakashi-sensei standing, talking to Hinata who was standing at the door. I wanted to see Hinata, and to greet her as her sister. I took a step past the door frame, to stand next to Kakashi, when a flood of memories entered my head in one massive tidal wave.

_A young giggling Kagerou ran, chasing a young Neji; Hinata following behind. All laughing, playing, cheering; happiness. _

Another memory:

"_Oneechan! Come play with Neji and me!" Hinata called._

"_Kagerou-hime… you are not to play with a member of the branch family, especially not Hizashi's son." Hyuga Elder scolded. _

"_Elder… I'm sure merely playing with him won't do any harm… besides, they are only children." Hiashi Hyuga said._

Many more memories of the same type played like a film in Kagerou's head. She blinked twice when she heard her name. "Kagerou…? Kagerou?" I looked up at Kakashi, he looked worried again.

"Pardon? I'm sorry… I wasn't listening, Kakashi-sensei."

"I said that Hinata is going to take you to Ino's house, so she can measure you for your yukata."

"Ah, OK… anou… Hinata, shall we go?"

"Y-yes, oneesama." I froze. _'oneesama…?'_ Oneesama is only used between siblings that are not very close, or are having a fight, or there is some other barrier preventing them from expressing their love for their sibling. _'Hinata… is __**scared**__ of me…?'_ I know that I had been away for a while, but, oneesama… I continued walking out the door, down the corridor and out into the sunlight. I sighed. It felt nice to be out in the sun again.

Hinata and I calmly walked towards Ino's house, passing lots of people in the process. I found out that I got a few funny looks from all sorts of people, but shrugged to off, and blamed it on me being the "new person". It was only when I reached the outside of Ino's house when I realised why people were staring at me. Shikamaru had just stepped out from Ino's doorway after giving her a lazy "seeya tomorrow…" and walked down the steps, jumping slightly at the door that was slammed behind him. He looked round once he had reached the edge of Ino's flowerbeds and saw Hinata and I walking up the road.

"Hey! Hinata! Who's the new girl?" Hinata stopped in her tracks, she had always been quite a shy person… but never with me until now… "And why the hell is she wearing Sakura's clothes?" It hit me. I suddenly froze, _'shit… that's why I was getting funny looks… I'm wearing Sakura's clothes…'_ I cursed myself inwardly before carrying on and introducing myself to Shikamaru.

"Hi! It's nice to meet you, I am one of Hinata's relatives visiting from quite far away, what's your name?" Shikamaru just stared at me, _'great… I think I laid it on a little thick there… great work, Kagerou!'_

"Uh… the name's Shikamaru; I'm a Chunin here at the Village Hidden in the Leaves… It's nice to meet you too… I guess…" I smiled as Hinata prodded me in the back. I looked over my shoulder at her.

"A-anou… oneesama… we're making I-Ino wait, w-we really should g-go now…"

"Ah, yes, I guess I'll see you around, Shikamaru!" I tried not to linger any longer, in case I was made to answer anymore questions, like why exactly I was wearing "Sakura's" clothes. I jogged up the steps, pulling Hinata along with me, and knocked on the door.

"Bye then…" Shikamaru looked as if he had just walked through a hurricane; and walked off. Before Ino could open the door, I pushed Hinata in front of me.

"Oh! Hinata! Kakashi-sensei told me that I should expect you this afternoon… where's Kay… Ke…?" Ino blushed as she tried desperately to remember my name.

"Kagerou, it's nice to meet you, Ino-pi-" I refrained from calling her Ino-pig, as it was constantly my habit. I stepped out from behind Hinata to reveal myself. Ino's face was priceless… I think she was anticipating another Hinata to boss around; but instead she was greeted by a cheery, outgoing, fiery young lady. _'Sometimes I wonder how on earth Hinata and I are related…'_

"Ah! Kagerou! That was it, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there! It's nice to meet you too." She ushered us inside, and directed us to the living-room. "One thing before we get started… anou… why are you wearing those ugly clothes?! No offence, but only someone as fashion-challenged as Billboard Brow would _ever_ wear _anything_ like _that_." I fumed… _'Billboard brow, eh? Grrr… Ino, you just make me so mad!'_ "I simply must take you shopping later, to buy you some new clothes! You have a perfect figure… but you're hiding it with that ugly dress… when did you get that dress anyway, it looks waaay too small for you!" I was bombarded with questions… I didn't know what to do, so I just acted on instinct.

"Uhh… well… you see, I arrived in Konoha three days ago, but… Kakashi-sensei couldn't find anywhere for me to stay, as I wanted to keep me being here a surprise for the rest of the Hyugas, for the family re-union. You know? And so… uh… Kakashi-sensei let me stay with Sakura-san, and Sakura offered me some of her clothes while the ones I came here with were being washed… and uhm… yeah, that's just about it!" I was pleased with my on-the-spot lying; as Kakashi-sensei once said: every good lie is made with a splash of truth. I laughed inwardly when I saw Ino buying it.

"Oh? Sakura-chan is back? I wonder why she didn't come say hi…? Do you think she's avoiding me?!" I cursed in my head… _'Why does she have to make things so complicated?!' _

"What? Oh no… of course not… she didn't seem to be avoiding anyone." I had to get her off the topic. "What time do the shops in Konoha close? Since the reunion is tomorrow, I want tot get all of my shopping done today."

"Ah, of course! We better get started, if you could just stand on this stool here, so I can measure you up!" Ino took one lop-sided glance at me, "that won't do… the wrinkles in your clothes will make the measurements go all funny! I have no idea why you didn't just go buy some clothes that fit! You need to take that dress off!" I looked at the massive window to the right of me, I could see people walking past, I cleared my throat and said:

"uhm… Hinata, do you mind… closing the curtains… shutters… whatever… please?" She nodded silently and closed the curtains before sitting down on the couch in Ino's living room.

"Heh, sorry about that, I forgot there was a massive window there, uh… if you could stand up straight while I take your height…" I stood up straight, and held my head high, "168cm… now, breathe normally while I measure your hips, waist and chest…" I did as I was told, and Ino did the same, "hips… 86… waist… 76… chest…" Ino's face went bright red as she stared at the tape measure. I didn't understand what was wrong.

"Is there a problem, Ino?"

"Nothing, nothing… chest, 86… Hinata, did you get all that?!"

"H-hai, Ino-san! I-it's all right here." Hinata held up a piece of paper with the measurements on it.

"Good, now, Hinata, do you know what kind of patters the materials of traditional Hyuga yukatas are? I have quite a few fabrics to pick from here…" Ino pulled out a basket with many different coloured rolls of fabric. "There's this nice blue one… mint green one, pink one… red one, and then we have some patterned fabric too! This black one with blue cranes, this white one with this pink gradation, this red one with gold embroidery… this cream one with blue and red crystals sewn on, don't they look like dragonflies? And this purple one with lilac flowers all over it… that one's my favourite. Hinata, what's your verdict?"

"Oh! Uh… well I-I quite like t-the b-black one with b-blue cranes… but I think that the r-red and g-gold one would look nice on Oneesama…"

"Right then! Red one it is!"

"N-no! A-anou… m-my family o-only e-ever where b-blue and w-white for special o-occasions and formal e-events… red w-would not be a-accepted…"

"Ah… ok then, so, what fabric do you think we should use?" Ino snorted.

"hn… if you don't mind me butting in… but, the cream one with blue and red crystals looks quite nice… and it sticks with the colour scheme too."

"So, we're definitely using this material?" Ino held up the roll of fabric, while Hinata and I both nodded. "Good! So, I need to go mark up and cut the fabric, you can sit down for a while, Kagerou; cover up, in case my dad comes home!" I blushed a little at her last sentence, as I sat down on the sofa, and tried to put my dress back on. It refused to go past my hips. Literally _refused_. I resorting to sitting there with it draped over me, to preserve my modesty.

Time passed while Hinata and I were waiting for Ino to finish cutting the fabric, and measuring and re-measuring… I tried desperately to make conversation with Hinata about the family nowadays, but she was just using that "don't-speak-unless-your-spoken-to" attitude. Finally, Ino turned to me and said: "Time to start pinning!" I shuddered at the thought of Ino and I being locked in a room, her with a box of pins… I shook the thought from my head, took the dress back off again and got back up on to the stool. She draped lots of fabric over me, it was surprisingly light-weight, and she was pinning it quite taught over my body. "I want to show off your to-die-for figure, Kagerou-san! Ohhh… you make me so jealous! What kind of a diet are you on?"

"Uh… I'm not really on any diet… to be honest." I looked down at her and smiled uneasily; I could see the flames in her eyes, the burning flames of envy. She took a while pinning the fabric together, she then walked back over to the fabrics box.

"I just had a great idea, Kagerou-san! I have this really nice light-blue lace that would look perfect around the hems of the yukata, doesn't that sound nice?"

"I guess…" she pulled out the lace from the bottom of the box and held it up to the fabric pinned on me; _'it does look quite nice…'_ I thought to myself.

"Perfect. Oh, Kagerou… sometimes I do surprise myself with my genius!" Ino looked outside; "Oh! Dear look how late it is already! I'll have to give you the yukata tomorrow morning when you came round to do your make-up; otherwise we won't have any time for shopping! Put your dress back on, and we can nip out quickly, ok?"

"Anou, Ino-san, uhm… I'm sorry but I can't put the dress back on. It really doesn't fit."

"Oh! Don't worry about that! I'll go upstairs, and you can borrow some of my clothes, judging by your measurements, you're about my size. I'll go and get some right now!" Ino dashed out of the room and all the way upstairs. Meanwhile, someone had just come through the front door, as I heard it bang shut again.

"Ino? Is that you in the living room?" I heard a man call. _'Shit!'_ her dad was back, and was making a beeline for the living room. I was standing on a little pedestal, half dressed, when he opened the door and walked inside. Hinata shrieked, and I could hear Ino trampling down the stairs. I looked down, and the whole of my front was completely exposed. In my efforts to move the fabrics so that they were covering my underwear I toppled over on the pedestal and fell backwards onto the floor, legs splayed in the air. Hinata fainted. Meanwhile that ordeal was going on, Inoichi had first frozen in the doorway, and then, after realising what was happening, ducked his head, while his face went red and apologised furiously while backing out of the room.

"Dad?! What are you doing?!" Ino's surprised voice came from the hallway.

"I thought that you were in the living room! It's not my fault!" Ino poked her head inside the living room to asses the damage, she first saw me with my legs in the air, then looked over at Hinata, who was collapsed on the floor.

"Dad, look at whet you've done! On second thought… don't… but, still! You've messed everything up!" Ino angrily said to her father while he was backing away, cautiously.

"Hn… it's OK…" I said while getting up. I decided to go over and inspect Hinata; she was fine, breathing normally. She opened her eyes and looked up at me while I helped her up, and sat her down on the couch. "Maybe Ino and I should drop you off at home before we go shopping… you might want to go and lie down, oneechan." Hinata's eyes widened at the usage of "oneechan" but I ignored it. Ino had come up to me, and handed me some clothes to put on.

"Here, now hurry up! We've only got an hour and a half until the stores close!" I was dressed, and Ino, Hinata and I were out of there within the next five minutes. We (or rather Ino) dropped Hinata off at the Hyuga compound and we could finally start shopping for some clothes.

"Ino… I'm sorry, but I forgot to tell you, I don't have any money… I was… robbed on the way here." My lies were getting better and better… I felt slightly guilty for not telling Ino that I simply didn't have any money… but that would probably have lead to further questions… which I could not tolerate.

"Oh! That's terrible, don't worry, Kagerou! I'll treat you, as you're my new best friend." I froze. _'New best friend…'_ I shuddered at the thought of Ino and me frolicking through fields of flowers together. I despised Ino… she was just so… _annoying_.

Shopping with Ino was torture; absolute torture. She dragged me by the arm to every single shop that we passed, and made me try on several different outfits _per shop_. She also tried to convince me that I really suited very sluttish clothes, which I would never wear in my lifetime. I passed a very nice dress, similar to the one that my disguise Sakura would wear; Ino said that it was ugly and proceeded to drag me to another shop. She said that bondage suited me, and that I should wear lots of bandages. I didn't mind wearing bandages, but when she suggested my regular outfit should become a mini-skirt, lots of fishnets for a whole manor of places… and a very skimpy, revealing top. I refused to wear it, I gave it straight back to the sales person _'I will not have my image ruined by that… degrading __**slut**__!'_ I sneered to myself. She picked out some less skimpy, much nicer clothes out, which I obliged for her to buy.

My new outfit was bandages. Lots of them, not as much as Ino wanted, but, enough to satisfy me. I wore bandages up to my knees on both legs and up to the elbow on my right arm, I stuck with the heeled kunoichi boots that Sakura used to wear and I decided to wear my forehead protector around my neck. Ino had bought me some skin-tight shorts in blue, and a beige overskirt to accompany them, the skirt had many a split, I thought that would be useful in combat, so I chose that specific style. I had bought one of the jackets all the Jounin seem to wear, but in black. And underneath it I wore an off-the-shoulder type shirt (that Ino bought) over some thick fishnets. I thought to myself: _'well… at least I came out of it alive… and not too bare…'_

After the whole shopping ordeal, Ino asked me what colour I wanted my obi, as she had forgotten to ask earlier. I said that the first blue that she had shown me was very nice and it would go with the rest of the fabrics. Ino cheerfully waved me off at Sakura's doorstep, as I said she wasn't in, and said: "Bye! See you tomorrow morning for your make-over!" I had the worst feeling come over me as soon as I had left Ino's house all the way up until then. It was the kind of feeling like somebody was watching you, but you had absolutely no idea who was, or from where. It creeped me out, every so often I would whip my head around to see if anybody was there, every time there was nobody. _'These are the times when I wish I had spent more time working on developing my Byakugan instead of learning pointless jutsu. I would have known ages ago who had been following me, and probably eliminated them by now too.'_ I decided that it wasn't safe to stay in "Sakura's" house that night, twilight had ended, and it was officially getting dark; and creepy. So, instead I went to the closest person I knew that could defend themselves. Although I dreaded it, I knew there was only one person I could go to, I had to come crawling back to him after so many years. I doubt he'd be happy to see me.

I started walking in the direction of Sasuke's house.


	8. Chapter 8

09:08, June 22nd –three days before the present time.

Sasuke Uchiha's House, Village Hidden in the Leaves

Sasuke Uchiha/ Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga's P.O.V.

I neared his house…Sasuke's house… the one I would _hopefully_ be sleeping in tonight. My heart was beating faster with every step I took. I arrived at his doorstep; I lingered there for a while, pondering whether I was just being paranoid, and to go home. But the feeling lingered, and got worse, I felt as if there was more then one pair of eyes following me now. I shivered before deciding that I wasn't being stupid, and that I really should knock before something bad happens. I knocked; one single knock of solitude. I heard footsteps inside the house, and then finally behind the door. It seemed as if he lingered at the door, because it was ten whole seconds before he opened it, I think he knew it was me. I heard a ch-chunk of a bolt inside the door, and it slowly, but surely opened to reveal Sasuke standing behind it.

"What do you want, Kagerou?" He said coldly as his onyx eyes met my own. I broke the gaze by looking around, over my shoulder to some bushes where I thought I had heard a twig crack. Sasuke saw my concern, and offered for me to step inside. "Would you like to come in? It's cold out there…" _'Cold like your heart.' _I thought to myself.

"T-thank you, Sasuke" I said as I walked into the threshold. He closed the door behind me. I stared at the ground; I didn't know what to say… or how to say it.

"Kagerou, I'm glad to see you're out of hospital." _'He's trying to make small talk…'_ I thought to myself. "Why are you here so late?" I looked up at him. He looked tortured, I could she he was holding something back, I wasn't sure what though.

"I believe someone's following me… I'm sorry to intrude on you like this, but I don't think my house is safe. They know already." Sasuke's eyes widened in shock and horror; _they know already…_ His body became stiff, and he looked at the ground.

"You should stay here, all night; do you think its worth calling Kakashi-sensei?"

"How would we get message to him?"

"Good point. Hn… would you like to come in the actual house now?" I blushed slightly as he said it, he was right; we had just been standing in his threshold. He silently turned around and led me into his living room. He offered me a seat on his couch; I looked worryingly out of his window. He followed my gaze and went to go and close the curtains. I relaxed a bit afterwards, I hadn't realised my body had been tense for the past thirty seconds. He came and sat next to me on the couch; not as close as I wished he had, but at least he had let me in. We sat there, looking at each other for a while. It wasn't a warranted silence; it was an awkward one, one that consisted of nothingness. It was a while before Sasuke said anything, but, eventually he broke the silence with a calm, slightly croaky voice:

"Why didn't you tell me?" I assumed he was talking about my disguise as Sakura. I sighed, a long, exasperated sigh.

"Sasuke, it was for my protection-" Sasuke let out a low growl; his tone had hints of menace and anger in it now.

"For you protection? Why did you do that to me? _How_ could you do that to me? I thought you were _dead_, Kagerou. I thought I would _never see you again_. Do you know how that made me feel?" I tried to imagine, as my vision blurred, blocked by the layer of tears welling up in it. I couldn't imagine.

"No, Sasuke, I can't begin to imagine how you feel. I am _so sorry_, Sasuke… so sorry…" my voice broke at the end to a wheeze; I started sobbing. I looked up at him through the tears, I couldn't read his expressions; it was as if there wasn't one there.

"I was willing to die for you." Sasuke solemnly said.

"W-what?"

"That night, when my brother committed that act of genocide, he left me to be the only one left. I asked him what he had done to you; I needed to know, he replied that he had killed you, along with the rest of your family. I needed to find out; to know for sure. When I arrived at your house, I couldn't find your body. It was then when I was determined to find Itachi, and to kill him because I was so sure he had taken you with him, to become his wife." His voice was so cold, detached; it sent shivers down my spine.

"You know that I would never consent to that!"

"You know that Itachi had a soft spot for you! He spent more time with, and spoke more with you then he did with me!" I felt a pang in my heart. _'Is he jealous…?'_

Do you want to know what really happened on that day?" My voice choked. He stared at me, he didn't answer, so I decided for him. My voice was wavering throughout speaking with him, I choked on the lump in my throat, but he never outstretched a hand in condolence. "On that night, I heard my mother talking in another room." I took a deep breath before continuing. "I got out of bed to see who she was talking to, she… she was being captured by Orochimaru… he had her in his arms, and she was struggling to get free. H-he… _licked_ her over her cursed mark… before releasing her from his grip when he set eyes on me. I-I was terrified… my mother… she tried to stop him from getting to me, but he had somehow weakened her previously; she took my hand, and ran with me out into the forest, where she kept me in a tree stump, before going back to confront Orochimaru. She fell to him that day. I stayed in that tree stump, until Kakashi came and found me there the next morning, Orochimaru never came back… nobody came back, the village had been ablaze. Kakashi gave me my mother's necklace at her funeral; we buried her together underneath the cherry tree that my parents first met each other. Sasuke… I miss her… and I missed not being able to talk to you, about… anything…" I burst into tears, and cupped my face in my hands… I didn't know what to do… I was so sad… the kind of sadness that you cannot just push away, I felt a very depressing lull around me, pressing me from all my sides.

***

Pain is what I was feeling, intense _pain_. It was more than anyone could express. It was too much to bear. I was staring at my child hood sweetheart, my one true love break down in tears in front of me, and I couldn't do anything. I remembered all those times when I had turned her down, when I had broken her heart and pushed her away because she wasn't Kagerou. But she _was_ Kagerou… I couldn't handle the pain that was stinging my heart. It was too much. I had to do something, guilt washed over me as I looked down at her, she was a broken soul, she had nothing to live for. Now she had no reason to live, no purpose to survive, but I wanted to change that.

I had changed since we were children, yet she had not, she was forgiving, I was not easily so. I love her, I really do, but all the pain in the seven years she caused me needed to escape, and the only way of doing so, was by making her feel it, showing her what she had done; it killed me to do so, but how else was I supposed to forgive, if she cannot feel the pain I have.

She was all alone, whom should she live for? Was her life of no use? "S-Sasuke-kun… w-why are you doing t-this? I have t-told you I am eternally sorry… the _amount_ _of_ _times_ I wished to scream out who I really was can never be counted… but I knew that I would s-surely die, or undergo extreme pain if I ever was revealed… you need to understand." I felt selfish after she said that; selfish that I was causing her inexplicable pain… but it needed to be done. I longed to reach out and touch her… to have her in my arms… to comfort her, to feel her skin against mine, to feel her warmth melt my cold heart. I outstretched my arm towards her, hesitated when she looked up and withdrew back. "W-why are you _torturing_ me like this? Sasuke-kun… I-I…" Her voice trailed off… I was sure of what she was going to say, but she hesitated and never finished.

"You what?" I asked, inwardly longing for her to finish. She simply looked back down to the ground, and continued sobbing. "Kagerou… you… you have to know how I felt, what turmoil I went through every day… wishing… hoping… longing that Itachi didn't steal you away… but, what was even worse to me was that mind-numbing sensation in the back of my skull, that you might even be dead… that I will most definitely never ever see you again… the pain that you are feeling now, increase that tenfold and then imagine sustaining it for seven whole years… can you understand now why I do not forgive you so easily? You were right beside me the whole time… but I never knew…" I looked down at the fabric of my sofa, picking at it absent-mindedly, I then remembered the question I had been wanting to ask her ever since I saw her in hospital a couple of days ago. "K-Kagerou…" I looked up and saw her wiping the tears from her eyes and waiting diligently for the question. "Why… why did you choose the name "Sakura" as your cover…? It seems a bit cliché, don't you think…?"

"S-Sasuke-kun… that was my nickname from my parents when I was young… p-partly because I was conceived under a cherry tree… and because when I was b-born, my father brought my mother cherry blossom in the hospital." I looked deep into her eyes as she spoke; I was lost in them… _'Her eyes are so beautiful…'_

Before I knew what had happened, it had happened… unable to contain myself I jumped onto Kagerou's venerable, slim frame, hugging her so tightly that I was afraid she'd stop breathing; she didn't. She took long, deep breaths into my chest. And finally, she hesitantly returned the hug… I was overwhelmed with happiness… my body and mind were both in bliss together. "S-Sasuke-kun…" she whispered into my chest. I loved it when she called me that, it made me feel happy and helped me remember my childhood in a better light.

"Yes… Kagerou…?" I replied softly.

"I-if you were in such pain… why didn't you ever end it…? End all the pain and suffering for good…" I became stiff. I knew the exact answer; I didn't even have to hesitate.

"Because, Kagerou… If I had ended my life, then I would never have been able to find Itachi, and hopefully you… even though you were what was causing my pain, you were also the thing that kept me sane… Kagerou… I-I…" I looked down at her, I was now lying on top of her on my sofa, I was lost in her deep eyes once more… I couldn't think clearly. "I… don't know what to say."

She smiled at me, a sweet, blissful smile that made me grin too, she propped herself up with her arms, reached up, and kissed me softly on the cheek. "I missed you…" she serenely whispered into my ear… she made me shudder with delight; sending a shock of excitement tingling down my spine.

***

I drew back from Sasuke, and lay back down on the sofa; staring longingly up into his dark, mysterious eyes. I felt broken, but he was mending me again… then did I realise that I loved him, I wasn't so sure previously, but I recognise that feeling as love. I wanted to be with him, for him to hold me, and for me to be eternally his… I took a deep breath in, he smelled like a man, not like the child I once knew. I had been by his side all these years, but have only just realised how much he had actually changed. I sighed inwardly at his growth and manliness and- I didn't know what happened next, I blinked and then suddenly I was in his arms, being carried bridal-style out of the room.

"Sasuke-kun…?" I looked up at him, he was staring straight ahead.

"I don't have any guest bedrooms, so you're going to sleep in mine tonight."

"W-what…?" I was only fourteen, he was only fourteen… I loved him, but sex before marriage was a sin… We arrived in his bedroom, and he gently put me down on his bed, it was soft, and enticing to sleep in. Before I could escape, he thrust himself on top of me. "S-Sasuke-kun!" I felt my face get hotter every second; I didn't know what to do… I'd hate to upset him, but sex before marriage was a sin. He smiled at me, his eyes roaming my body, before he leaned closer to my face, and kissed the tip of my nose. I had never been with Sasuke with such intimacy. He began lifting me up, and taking the jacket that I had bought earlier from underneath me, and putting it on the ground next to the bed. I was shocked at his actions… he eyed my body greedily, before leaning in again and whispering in my ear, "I'll wait for you…" then getting off me, and leaving the room.

My breathing wasn't normal, I had felt so exhilarated… exited… scared all so quickly one after another. I sat up in bed, and stared at the spot he had just disappeared to, I pondered going after him, but my day was so tiring that I was too exhausted to do anything else; I lay back down in bed, and stared at the ceiling.

***

I stopped outside the door, and leaned at the wall, sighing, wanting to have my way with her there and then. But I knew I had to wait for her approval, otherwise she'll never love me. I sighed and looked at the floor. _'I love you from the bottom of my heart…'_ I thought as I closed my eyes, it took great effort and strain to stop myself from running back in there and pouncing on her there and then. I sighed while tearing myself away from the wall, and walking back downstairs to the living room. I threw myself on my sofa, and buried my face into one of the cushions. I flipped over and stared at the ceiling, thinking about her… her elegance… her curvature… her _eyes_… I closed my eyes imagined her in my arms… she was mine and only mine… _'I'm glad she came by this evening…'_ I thought as I turned over and closed my eyes.

I slowly drifted to sleep, dreaming of pleasant things: cherry blossoms, killing Itachi, and tomatoes.


	9. Chapter 9

09:38, June 23rd –two days before the present time.

Hyuga Compound, Village Hidden in the Leaves

Sasuke Uchiha/ Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga's P.O.V.

I was sat in the kitchen table, staring into space; I couldn't believe what had happened last night. Kagerou was still up in my room sleeping, I had passed her on his way to the bathroom earlier that morning. I got up, and turned towards the doorway, I crept upstairs, and into my bedroom.

She was lying there like a sleeping angel. I wondered whether to wake her up, instead I decided to watch her sleep, imagining a world where we're together, and replenishing our clan together. I smiled at the thought, and giggled inwardly. I sat down on the bed next to her, I wanted to lye down next to her, but I wasn't sure whether she would disapprove of that or not. I watcher her sleep, I tenderly stroked her face, she was warm. She grabbed my hand, and, for a minute I thought that she was awake, but she had absent-mindedly grabbed my hand and held it tight against her chest in her sleep. She looked so cute. I felt my face go red when I finally realised where my hand was, and before I knew it, matters had got even worse as she turned over, pulling me along with her.

I heard a high pitch scream as I fell on top of her sleeping body, I closed my eyes tight as she pushed me away. "S-Sasuke-kun? Oh, it's just you; I thought you were… someone else for a minute there." She rubbed her eyes and yawned, while in the process of saying: "…what time is it, Sasuke-kun; I have to be at Ino's by ten to ten." I looked at the clock on my bed-side table and said,

"You better hurry then, its 9:45." She stared at me, eyes wide with disbelief.

"Whaaattt? Sasuke-kun, I've really got to go!" She jumped out of bed, picked up her coat, and was about to speed off before I caught her by the arm and said:

"Are you sure it's safe to go out alone, I mean, you have someone on your tail, I think I should come too."

"Sasuke-kun, I'll be fine, it's broad daylight! Plus, I'm going to have a family reunion with the Hyugas; they'll see an assassin from miles away!"

"Are you sure you're ok with this, then?" She glanced back at the bedside clock before saying:

"Look, I've really got to go. Bye!" She spun around and was out of the room before I knew it; I sped after her down the stairs, and just when she reached the door she stopped dead in her tracks, spun around and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I blushed furiously afterwards, and felt the place where she had just kissed me. She had opened the door again, and ran out, down the street. I stood in the door way, and watched her go.

"Aw… that's such a drag… why do you always have to scare all the good ones off, Sasuke?"

"He he… look at her little legs go, what did you do to her, Sasuke? Tell her your life story?" I looked around to the right, and there were Shikamaru and Choji, standing there looking at me. "Hey… is there something wrong, you look like you have a temperature." Choji teased.

"More likely he got slapped by that girl." Shikamaru joined in. They both cracked up laughing. Shikamaru was such a lazy bum, and Choji… he just irks me. I continued going brighter and brighter shades of pink.

"What are you doing here, Shikamaru; Choji?" I asked, trying to get them off the subject. They wiped happy tears from their eyes before saying:

"We were on our way to the training grounds when we almost got trampled by your girlfriend." Shikamaru replied, while Choji munched his crisps while giggling.

"She's not my girlfriend." I replied, annoyed.

"Nope! She's your _ex_-girlfriend!" Choji chortled. Both of them were rolling on the ground in stitches now. I decided to back away into the house while they were pre-occupied and slammed the door.

***

I had reached Ino's house in record-breaking time, but that ubiquitous feeling still hadn't lifted. I knocked on the door, and Inoichi answered. His face looked like it had just been dunked in a pan of boiling water when he saw me.

"Uh… um… I think you're here for I-Ino? She's in her bedroom." He stepped out of the way, to let me in.

"Thank you Yamanaka-san and, I'm sorry about our encounter yesterday; let's just forget about that." I bowed before walking past and up the stairs. I knew where Ino's room was immediately from Hinata's high-pitched squeals and whimpers. I stood in the doorway, watching Ino forcefully tie up Hinata's obi. "What _are_ you doing to my sister, Ino?" Hinata's face went bright red, while saying:

"O-oneesama!" And Ino looked up from what she was doing before saying:

"Ah! Kagerou-chan," my face twitched at the usage of the "chan" suffix. I remembered her saying _'you're my new best friend!_' yesterday and it echoed through my head, taunting me. "You're late! Only by a little bit, though. Come here," She dropped a dazed Hinata, and went over to her cupboard (which looked as if it was on the brink of exploding). "See! I finished it last night! I'm quite proud of it myself; it's my best work yet!" She handed me a yukata, made from the same materials we had picked out yesterday. "Go on, put it on then! We don't have any time to stand around! I still have to do yours and Hinata's hair and make-up!" I went to a corner and took my clothes off, down to my wrappings and underwear, I saw Ino eyeing me viciously while trying to do up Hinata's obi, again. I had finished putting the yukata on, it was very smooth and lightweight, and it felt nice against my skin, the lace at the hems was just a nice finishing touch. "You must be very exited, is it some sort-of party you're going to? Oh, I wish I could come, but I'm on duty at the shop today. Oh! That's right, I didn't tell you! Kagerou-chan, my family owns the Konoha flower shop; we do deliveries any time, any place! I'll show you it some time." I was dreading the thought of going round Ino's flower shop. Last time I went in there, I had a coughing fit because of the stench of the flowers.

"Ah, well… we're actually attending a family reunion today, so I don't think you'd really be able to come anyway." I said as I walked towards her.

"A family reunion? Do you want me to help you put your obi on?"

"Yes, please." She came round behind me, as I handed her the fabric.

"Please put your arms up," I outstretched my arms like I was about to walk a thin wire. "That's it…" Ino wrapped the fabric around my waist softly, then, without waning she pulled it really, really tight. No wonder Hinata was whimpering, I let out a few small cries too.

"Wh-what are you doing?!" I shouted back to her, annoyed.

"I want to show of your figure, I made the yukata tight, but it won't work if the obi doesn't hold it together!" She had finished, and I felt a strain on my ribcage, which in turn made the wound that Kiba gave me burn. I clutched it as Ino looked round and said, "Wow… you really do look beautiful in traditional dress… I'm so jealous!" I really felt like turning around and slapping her. The make-up didn't go _too_ badly afterwards, she was concentrating so hard on getting it perfect that she didn't talk very much at all.

After she had done my make up, I stood up to thank her, and then walked over to the floor-length mirror. I looked really different; my once pink, smooth skin was now powder-white, my cherry lips were now apple red, my eyes had rims of black around them… I could tell it was me, but, at the same time, I couldn't. The yukata looked good too, I had to admit it, Ino was a very good seamstress. Ino helped me with my hair as well. My usual, hip-length hair was up in a pony-tail, aided by chopsticks that looked a lot like senbon; my bangs were left in my face, and my hair was decorated with a few flowers from Ino's flower shop, it did look quite nice… I turned around, and watched as Ino dived through her draws, obviously trying to find something. "Ino, Hinata and I better go now. Thank you for everything, you've been so generous."

"No! Wait! I have something for you!" She turned around with two fans in her hands, one was much like Temari's large sensu, but much smaller, which she handed to me. She handed the other one, which was an uchiwa to Hinata. There were very pretty patterns on both our fans; mine had an illustration of an animal that looked much like a wolf, while Hinata's had two goldfish on it. We made our way out of the house, and down the through Konoha towards the Hyuga Compound. It would take approximately ten minuets to get there, maybe longer as we were both wearing geta sandals and tabi, and they were quite hard to walk in.

Hinata seemed to soften up a bit when I started talking to her; she answered in much longer sentences and refrained from stuttering most of the time. It had been two minutes into the journey when we passed the Ichiraku Ramen bar, and saw Naruto walking out from it. Hinata immediately uttered a small squeal, as I waved to him. Naruto came bounding up to us with a massive smile on his face. "Hinata! Kagerou! I haven't seen you around much. Good to see you're finally out of hospital, Kagerou, how are you?" I looked round at Hinata who just stared at the ground, blushing furiously. I decided to answer, because we would have got nowhere if I had left it up to Hinata. I smiled to myself as I saw her sudden shyness.

"Oh, Naruto-san, we were just getting ready for out family reunion, hence the yukatas we're wearing. And thank you, I'm glad I'm out of the infirmary too… the pain hasn't gone away, but the wound seems to be almost healed."

"That's good. And don't worry, I got revenge for you on Kiba, I rubbed his face in the dust for 'ya! You both look really good in your dresses, by the way." I smiled; it was nice to know at least _someone_ was forgiving.

"You didn't need to do that… Kiba was just trying to protect you guys. Thank you anyway, Naruto-san! And I'm flattered that you think we look nice, thank you." I said as I dragged Hinata off.

I had a bad feeling all the way to the compound. The ubiquitous presence was gone. Completely. It simply wasn't there, or, I just couldn't feel it anymore. I really hoped that it was the former. Every step closer to the compound I took, the more and more afraid I got. It seemed as if Hinata shared my feelings, as we both got slower the closer we got. Hinata pushed the gates open, and it seemed as if rumour had got around, because just about every household member, branch and main was out in the garden to witness my arrival. Hinata and I took one step in, and someone closed the gates for us. A light hubbub could be heard as I took steps foreword towards the house. People were uttering all sorts of things; I could make out: _"Kagerou no hime is back…" "Ayame-hime…?" "She's alive…!" "Hinata-sama was telling the truth!" "Where has she been?" _amongst a manor of other things. I was amazed that they instantaneously recognised me.

Hinata had stopped walking and was still at the gates, she signalled me to carry on. I did so; every person that I walked passed either bowed their heads, or if they were a member of the branch family fully bowed on the floor. The reunion did not cease to amaze me. I had tears of happiness in my eyes, that they didn't shun me. I scanned the two long lines on either side of me for my father, but he wasn't there, I saw Neji in the process, but when I made eye-contact he simply lowered his head. I felt my chest hollow and my heart shatter. _'Where is my father…?'_ He wasn't anywhere to be seen; tears trickled down my cheeks as I was only a metre away from the house and he still hadn't appeared. I turned around, and looked at everybody; my eyes lingered on Hinata who dipped her head down. More tears fell down my cheeks and onto the floor. _'Where is he…?' _

Just then I heard a "tap, tap" of sandals on the porch behind me, then "A-Ayame…? No… Kagerou!" I spun around as quickly as I could to meet my father. I wanted to hug him, but that would be improper.

"O-Otousama…?" I decided that I had to keep my actions as polite as possible, he had changed, and I didn't want to damage our relationship any further, like I had with Hinata. I looked up at him, he looked so much older then I remember. A smile began to appear on his face.

"Ookiku natta ne, Kagerou-chan…" I was so happy, my eyes flooded with tears, I knew I wasn't supposed to, but I ran up to him, and held him tightly in an embrace. I was overjoyed when he returned the hug, stroking my hair whilst I cried into his chest. "Okaeri… Kagerou; welcome home…" He rested his head on the crown of mine, while the crowd that had accumulated there cheered. It seemed to me as if formalities had been thrown out the window the minute I hugged him, as soon enough the whole of the main branch of the Hyuga clan had gathered around my father and I to welcome me home. The cheers continued when I went over to all of the branch family, and shook all of their hands. "Kagerou-hime wa banzai!" was repeated over and over again by all the family members; it seemed that they really enjoyed their cheering.

I was over come with joy, but two things worried me, still, the ubiquitous feeling was still gone, and, Neji-san seemed to have left the festivities altogether. I really hoped that he wasn't going to react like Sasuke did. We were inside, having a toast to my arrival, when many of the young boys were egging me on to tell them in great detail why exactly I had been gone for the past seven years. They couldn't have been more then five, any of them, but they were all getting on my nerves. I wasn't just about to tell them about my heroic tale of me hiding as a pink-haired kunoichi under their noses, I decided just to keep quiet about the whole thing until Otouchan asked me. I was sitting next to my father, watching everybody get drunk when I leant over and asked him "Otouchan… where is Neji?" he looked at me as if I had just told a really funny joke, before replying:

"I don't know, Kagerou-chan, enjoy the festivities! He's probably in his room sulking like he usually is… have a drink! Forget you sorrows, this is a time for happiness!" I looked at him, _'yep, he's drunk.'_ I thought. As soon as he had turned his back, I left the room to go and find Neji.

***

Everybody was down in the dining hall; the Hyuga Compound was like a large, empty shell as I wandered its corridors. It had been a while since I last set foot inside the Hyuga Compound, and I had forgotten where all the rooms were, I spent ages, about twenty minutes just looking for Neji's room before I stumbled across it, at the far end of the Compound, the outermost corner of the Compound, I couldn't even hear the ruckus the rest of the Hyugas were making it was so far away.

I looked round the doorframe, and I saw him sitting cross-legged on his bed. His room was quite bare; there really wasn't much in it apart from necessary furniture and a wardrobe. He knew I was there, I could tell, but he didn't look up. I knocked on the doorframe. "N-Neji-kun… can I come in?" He closed his eyes and sighed.

"Yes." I cautiously stepped into his room, my bare tabi socks making scratching sounds against the woven wicker floor. I didn't want to make him seem inferior, so I sat down opposite him, so our heads were level. He was staring at the ground.

"I missed you." I said to him tenderly, trying desperately to make eye contact. There was a long silence. My face felt hot as I looked at the ground, my vision blurred due to accumulation of tears in my eyes. I didn't want the same thing to happen between Neji and I that had happened with Sasuke. He looked up at me quickly as my tears made "pilk" sounds against the floor.

"Why are you crying…?" He said to me, staring into my eyes.

"Because you don't like me, you aren't happy to see me… I'm sorry Neji-kun, for everything that happened… I'm really well and truly sorry. Please forgive me." He looked at me, into my eyes, and I saw immediately the waves upon waves of sadness that kept bashing him against the rocks.

"I… I just don't like parties." He said gruffly, turning his head to look at the ground again. "What are you doing here; I'm merely a servant in your eyes. Go and have fun with the rest of the main family. The branch family aren't permitted to partake in festivities unless it is to be a bodyguard or serve food and drinks." I stared at him in disbelief. Everybody was having a good time downstairs, not just the main family. I now knew exactly how much Neji had changed.

"Neji-kun… I don't think of you as a servant, I think of you as a dear cousin and a friend, Neji-kun… Daisuki datteba yo, OK? And no curse mark on your forehead will ever change that." I reached over and grabbed his hand before pulling him up to his feet. "Now come on, come down and join everybody else- not only just the main family." A chill crept over me as I said the last word, I had that feeling again. The feeling like I was being watched.


	10. Chapter 10

02:43, June 23rd –two days before the present time.

Hyuga Compound, Village Hidden in the Leaves

Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga/ Sasuke Uchiha's P.O.V.

A chill crept over me, I had that feeling again. The feeling like I was being watched. I pulled Neji up off the ground, and said, "Come on, let's go." I saw that he too was worried; he seemed to be searching everywhere, as if trying to find something. I stepped a little bit closer to him, also looking around, I whispered; "So… you can feel it too…"

"…like someone's watching us…" he finished off my sentence. "Why don't you use your Byakugan?" he asked into my ear.

"I… don't know how…" I felt ashamed; I was letting down my heritage… I was a Hyuga, but I couldn't use my Byakugan. I froze; someone was clapping from the hallway outside the room, a slow, rhythmic clap, as if whoever was producing the sound was mocking us. I heard footsteps come closer and closer, a bead of sweat rolled down my temple. I was waiting in anticipation to see who it was around the doorframe, Neji gently pushed me behind him; I looked around his arm to see Orochimaru slowly appearing from the doorframe.

I gasped in fear, he was back. "How… _touching_ of you, Kagerou-hime… what a noble and benevolent thing to do. _Neji-kun… Daisuki datteba yo_" he mocked us. He chuckled to himself while licking his lips. "My, _my_, Kagerou-hime… you have become the spitting image of your mother… a beautiful image, at that… you look ravishing in that dress, in fact, it reminds me a little bit of your mother's wedding dress…"

"Get out of here. You are not welcome in the Hyuga family household." Neji said, assuming a protective stance.

"Neji; please, this has nothing to do with you, go before you get hurt."

"She's right; you know… you will get hurt if you don't leave…_now_." Orochimaru licked his lips again, his long, serpent-like tongue made me shiver.

"Neji, please…" I pleaded with him, tears forming in the corners of my eyes.

"Kagerou-hime, I am part of the branch household, I was born to serve and protect you. I cannot abandon my given duty. I will stay with you until the end." I could see a small tear in the corner of his eye, as he looked over his shoulder to me, but he blinked it away.

"Ah… more drama; so, you're staying then, _Neji-kun_? Because if you are… then it won't be a fair fight then, will it?" Neji and I looked up. "Two against one…" He sighs. "I guess I'll just have to bring out one of my comrades then…"

Neji tensed, I felt the air in the room change, Kabuto appeared suddenly by Neji's right side. He widened his eyes beneath his spectacles and moved close to Neji's ear before whispering "Boo." I saw Neji spin around and shout while driving forward with his left hand, with the force and intent to kill in his movements. Kabuto immediately hopped backwards, dodging Neji's continued assault as if he was playing hopscotch. "Hehehe... you can't beat me. You have no skills, unlike Orochimaru-sama." Neji's eyes narrowed as he backed away from Kabuto to continue protecting me.

"You don't know what true skill is…" Neji sneered. I turned my head to see Orochimaru chuckling as he made his way towards Neji and I; we were cornered, there was no escape, Kabuto on one side, covering the window, and Orochimaru blocking the only exit to the room.

"What have you done with everybody else? If you dare touch a single hair on their heads…" I started, I was afraid if Orochimaru had done to my father what he had done to my mother that evening. I looked over to Kabuto, he was laughing.

"Heh, we didn't need to touch a hair on their heads, they were so out of it down there, a simple Temple of Nirvana Technique rendered them immobile, and totally useless." He continued his laughing. "_Nobody_ will hear you scream now, Kagerou-san." I froze on the spot, there was no way out; nobody was here to help us, and we were severely out matched. Both Orochimaru and Kabuto began marching towards us, at their own pace. Neji backed away, pushing me further behind him on the process. _'This is why I didn't tell anyone of my presence… I __**knew**__ this would happen!'_ I scolded myself for being so careless.

I could only watch as I saw Neji pounce on Kabuto like a wild cat, fighting at full force with his Gentle Fist technique. Kabuto simply dodged most of his moves, and began fighting back with Chakra Scalpel Technique. That left Orochimaru to me. I wasn't about to take any chances; I had to fight at full force, although my legs were shaking ferociously and I was terrified out of my wits. I began gathering chakra in my hands, to use my "Chakra Enhanced Strength Technique". Before I could even move towards him, Orochimaru punched his arm in the air towards me and shouted "Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!" Multiple snakes rushed towards me through the air; I began to turn and flee, but two of them caught my arms, and slithered down my legs, then rooted me to the ground. I screamed in fear, I had a phobia to snakes ever since I had been very small when a large snake attacked me in my own garden. I couldn't bring myself to move; I felt helpless, I felt useless. My breathing became irregular, Orochimaru simply walked towards me chuckling to himself; all I could do was stare into space, and wish that they would go away, that everything would go away. I heard a distant shout. Neji was shouting for me, desperately trying to get away from Kabuto so he could help me, but Kabuto dealt a deadly blow every time he tried to escape. Kabuto was taunting him, making him watch Orochimaru torture me. He kept on calling my name, begging for me to snap out of it and defend myself. But it was no use; I was rooted to the spot by the continuous hissing at my ankles.

Orochimaru had reached me, and walked around to my back. "What a dismal defeat, I was suspecting a challenge… at this rate you'll die within the next minute…" He reached around my waist with his right arm, temporarily bringing me out of my petrified trance.

"W-what are you doing?!" I hoarsely whispered. He chuckled to himself as he reached with his other arm up to the neckline of my yukata; with his forefinger wrapped around the fabric, he gently pulled it looser, exposing my shoulders and neck. I shivered as he leaned his extendable neck forwards slightly so his lips were right next to my ear. "You sick bastard." I choked, I was shivering again, but he hissed soothingly into my ear.

"What…? You don't like your uncle Oro?" I shivered at the thought of him being my uncle…

"I-in your dreams!" I hesitantly replied as his right hand parted the fabrics of my yukata and his cold hand slid over my naval.

"Such smooth skin…" He purred as I closed my eyes shut tight, wanting desperately for the snakes and him to go away. "Sssuch a shame that it might all go to wassste… sssuch a shame." His voice became wispy as it hissed through my earlobes. A bead of sweat ran down my forehead where it met with my tears. I could feel his breath against my neck, when would it all stop? I regained my senses slightly; I needed to get away from him; standing there in fear would not help my position. My right arm was folded against my chest by Orochimaru's wandering hand around my navel, my left arm was clamped down by the arm he had used to loosen my dress, I decided to try and push his grasp looser until I could wriggle free, and then eliminate him and his serpent friends with my Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin jutsu, that would hopefully buy me enough time to get Neji and I out of there.

I wriggled and pushed as much as I could, but the encasement around me that was his arms merely got tighter and tighter the more I struggled, until my body was pushed flat forcefully unto his looming one. "Ah, Kagerou-hime, escape is futile; I have you in my grasp now…" His head hovered over my neck; I could feel the turbulence of his breath ruffling my bangs. He took a deep breath in and then opened his mouth and bit my neck, causing the most excruciating pain imaginable to me. I screamed in terror; I screamed for someone to hear, someone to come save me. Orochimaru lifted his mouth off my neck, and then licked it slowly; as if he was savouring the taste… "Déjà vu, isn't it Kagerou-hime…"

***

Sasuke was in the Hyuga Compound, he had been training with Naruto only ten minutes previously, but had an extremely bad feeling come over him, call it a bad omen, but he decided to halt training for the rest of the day, and try and find Kagerou. Everything in the Hyuga compound was quiet, too quiet; the only thing audible was the soft rustle of the cherry blossom trees that lead a path down to the front door. Sasuke picked up the pace a little, feeling slightly unnerved at the ominous silence. He knocked on the front door. There wasn't an answer, not even a rustle came from indoors. _'Where is everybody…?'_ He thought before kicking the door down.

He cautiously stepped inside, looking in both directions before breaking out into a run down the expansive winding corridors, he could hear a faint buzzing sound, and decided to go towards it. As he neared it, and the sound grew louder he recognised it as: _'snoring…?' _He looked into what seemed to be dining room. He saw Hinata Hyuga at his feet, and all the other Hyuga family members sleeping at random points in the room. He knelt down to check if Hinata was still breathing or not, she was fine, just in a very deep sleep. _'Genjutsu… probably.'_ He thought before entering the room to see if Kagerou was in there. He passed many Hyuga clan members, completely asleep, but he did not see Neji Hyuga or Kagerou either. That worried him. He stepped out of the room, and was just about to continue searching the rooms when he heard a high-pitched scream, a scream that told him everything; it told him where Kagerou was. He knew her scream, it was the one that had been echoing through his head for the past seven years, he remembered that day when she ran up to him on the way to school, explaining that a snake had just bitten her then screaming in pain, and terror.

He bolted towards the continuing, unwavering shriek. He was moving without feeling, running without thinking, moving on complete instinct. He reached the doorframe of a room where the sound was coming from, the sound was so loud, it pieced his eardrums, he held his hands over his ears and squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to shut out the sound, but it ploughed through his body, shattering his heart into a million different pieces. The cry stopped, he opened his eyes to find that he was staring at the ground, his hands still over his ears. He lowered them as he slowly looked up to find himself staring Orochimaru and Kabuto right in the face.

He looked closer, and saw Kagerou in Orochimaru's arms, unconscious. Orochimaru's tongue flicked out as he slowly drew it across from Kagerou's shoulder to her cheek. He lifted his head from her neck, where a curse seal formed; he then wiped his mouth with one of his hands before looking up at Sasuke and saying: "How nice of you to join us… Sasuke; one of my favourite disciples, it's a shame that Kabuto and I are going to have to leave you here, our work is done." His smile broadened on his face: it stretched from ear to ear. Then he threw his head back and a loud, harsh chortle of sheer pleasure escaped his lips.

"You bastard!" Sasuke shouted at Orochimaru, before lunging forward in an attempt to retrieve Kagerou from his open arms, only to be halted by a punch in the abdomen by Kabuto; which sent him flying backwards and he approached the wall, he turned around in mid-air, and pushed away with his feet, to propel himself back at Kabuto. "CHIDORI!" Sasuke yelled as his glowing fist made contact with Kabuto's chest. Kabuto was sent backwards, and hit the wall with a thud. Sasuke panted as he looked up at Orochimaru, "you-make-me-sick!" he yelled as he made the hand signs horse and tiger. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!" he screamed into the hole he made with his fingers. A great fireball appeared and rolled in the direction of Kagerou and Orochimaru.

"No!" Neji cried as he tried to get up off the floor, he got up and ran over to Orochimaru and performed: Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin before the fire reached either Orochimaru or Kagerou. "What are you doing?! Are you trying to kill Kagerou-hime? You know that Orochimaru will only use her as shield to any attack!" Neji panted. Neji was right; he couldn't touch Kagerou while he had her in his arms.

"Put Kagerou down, Orochimaru." Sasuke said calmly.

"And why on earth would I do that, Sasuke? It's a shame; you would have become such a great prodigy of mine, have all the power, glory… anything and everything you could ever want is right here with me. Give in to the curse seal; stop fighting it so you can come join Kagerou-hime and me."

"Will that ensure Kagerou-chan's safety?" Sasuke replied, musing over the offer.

"What are you saying, Sasuke?! Are you mad?! You're just going to go along with whatever he says?!" Neji said, exasperated. Sasuke was angered again, _'no... I'm not just going to do whatever he says…'_ he thought while charging at Orochimaru.

"Manipulated Shuriken Technique!" He roared as he stepped past Neji. Four shuriken glided towards Orochimaru; he merely smiled. They whooshed past his head as he easily ducked and dodged them, little did he know that those shuriken had strings attached, and with the twist of a finger, Sasuke turned them around so they swiftly slid into Orochimaru's back. His expressions changed, he uttered some words underneath his breath before dropping Kagerou to the ground, she landed with a thud, and her necklace rolled out from her loose yukata and stopped next to her sleeping head.

"Kabuto! Can't you tell when our presence is not wanted?" Orochimaru called to Kabuto, who was finding it difficult to get up. "Looks like we're overstayed our welcome, Sasuke, but we will meet again." Orochimaru said, while they both seemed to be disintegrating slowly into flames. They were both gone. Neji sprung from his spot and threw himself at Kagerou's side. He sat there staring at her, he outstretched his arm and it hovered over her shoulder. Sasuke came and crouched by his side. _'I'm sorry that I didn't come any earlier… Kagerou-chan…' _he thought, as he touched the necklace on the ground. Sasuke's eyes fell on the curse mark on her neck; his eyes began to well up with tears, _'she shouldn't have to face that pain… the pain that I faced when I acquired mine.'_ Neji slipped his hands under Kagerou's back and thighs, and then lifted her up, carrying her bridal-style. He looked up at Sasuke with a pained look on his face.

"You shouldn't be so reckless; you put Kagerou in danger back then, I thought you were supposed to be her friend." Sasuke frowned at Neji's remark.

"I am her friend. I didn't see you helping get her out of that mess. We need to get her to Kakashi-sensei; he's the only person I know that can seal those things…" I nodded to Kagerou's visible curse mark, it didn't look like the one Sasuke was given; it was a small black dot, with what seemed to look a lot like a three-pronged shuriken around it. Neji looked annoyed that he was following orders from Sasuke, but he nodded in response.

Both of them jumped out of the window to the gardens outside the compound, Neji began running but stopped dead in his tracks and winced then fell to his knees, one eye shut. Sasuke stopped and looked back. "Do you want me to take Kagerou…?" Sasuke politely asked Neji, he saw how much pain Neji was going through, although he saw no visible wounds. Sasuke reached down and took Kagerou in one arm, then with his other, reached down and pulled Neji up back onto his feet.

"Thank you." He said as they resumed running. They ran past the training grounds to see if Kakashi was there, he wasn't, but they seemed to have another person following them now, Uzumaki Naruto was tailing them, shouting:

"Hey! Guys, wait up! What happened to Kagerou-chan?!" Sasuke's steps faltered at the use of "chan" against Kagerou's name by Naruto, but he didn't stop. He gritted his teeth at the constant barrage of comments being thrown at him like shuriken from Naruto. He looked round at Neji, his was bleeding out of his mouth, but he took no notice to that or Naruto and kept on forging onward. We arrived at Kakashi's house moments later, but he wasn't there either.

"Where the heck is he?!" Sasuke said as he spun around.

"Who are you looking for?" Naruto asked, panting as he had finally caught up with Neji, Kagerou and Sasuke.

"Kakashi-sensei." Neji replied, wincing.

"What? Why do you need to find Kakashi-sensei? Is Kagerou OK?" Naruto had finally regained his breath and couldn't stop asking questions.

"No, she's not OK. Orochimaru is back, his arms are fixed and he just tried to kidnap her. Now can you please shut up so I can think, Naruto?!" Sasuke was very irritated with Naruto; he just didn't know when to shut up.

"Orochimaru is back?! Sasuke, quick follow me!" Sasuke just stared at Naruto as he started racing off. He turned around to see that neither Sasuke nor Neji were following. "Come on, I know where Kakashi is!"

"Shit Naruto, why didn't just say, you dobe!?" Sasuke shouted as he started running, as he ran past Neji he saw out of the corner of his eye Neji splutter blood all over the ground out of his mouth. Wheezing, Neji stood up straight, and tried to walk, but fell on his first step. "Neji, we need to get you to a medic!" Sasuke said as he stared at the Hyuga coughing up blood on the floor.

"N-no… you need to *cough cough* get Kagerou-hime t-to Kakashi…" Neji said finally before his arms gave way and he fell onto his side, blood escaping at a trickle from his mouth.

"Kuso!" the curse escaped Sasuke's lips as Naruto came bounding up to see what happened. Sasuke put the unconscious Kagerou down next to Neji and turned round to Naruto to say, "What the hell are we going to do now?!" Neji coughed behind him and a fleck of blood landed on Kagerou's cheek; her eyebrows morphed into a frown as her eyelid fluttered open.

"Sasuke! Look!" Naruto pointed to the slowly recovering Kagerou, and Sasuke spun around and fell to his knees by her side. Here eyes were open, but it looked as if she couldn't see properly, as she didn't shout out "Sasuke-kun!" like he was expecting, instead she slowly turned her head to Neji. She seemed weak, as it took much effort for her to lift her arm up, so she could put her hand on his face and stroke it with her thumb, wiping away some of the blood.

"N-Neji…k-kun…" She said with what seemed her last breath before she slowly turned over onto her side, with one arm un-buttoning Neji's shit, the other desperately trying to prop herself up. Sasuke saw her struggle and helped support her thin, dainty frame. Neji's shirt was open, and Kagerou's hand started glowing purple with her chakra. She was trying to perform Mystic Palm Technique to heal his wounds, there weren't any visible, so they must have been internal wounds, the deadliest kind. _'I wonder how Kabuto did that to Neji… he must be a stronger opponent then I anticipated.'_ Sasuke noted. Neji seemed to be undergoing severe pain, as his facial features were strained and contorted. He eventually relaxed, as did Kagerou and both fell onto their backs, panting. Kagerou's head was in Sasuke's lap, and as he looked down on her a single tear dropped on her face, washing away the fleck of blood that had gotten there earlier.

By then they had gathered quite a crowd of people, watching what they were doing. Naruto saw them and turned, waving his arms about, saying "there's nothing to see here! Keep on moving!" Sasuke smiled at his efforts, he looked up and saw Neji cautiously getting up, so Sasuke decided to pick Kagerou up again, she winced, she was obviously in pain too. Sasuke turned around, and addressed Naruto when he said,

"So, where did you say Kakashi is?" Naruto looked surprised, and then said:

"Follow me!" They did, all the way out into the forest, jumping from tree to tree.

"How long is this going to take, Naruto? Kagerou's condition is getting worse by the second."

"It's not too far from here, stop your whining! And stop acting as if you're the only one that cares about her, she's my friend too!" Naruto retorted. Sasuke huffed when they hopped off the treed and into a small, stone-covered clearing with a river running through it. This was the place where one of Team Seven's fist missions was, to clean up the river from litter. And there was Kakashi, standing on top of the water in the middle of the river, reading his book. He looked up when he saw Naruto Neji, and, finally Sasuke with Kagerou in his arms enter the clearing.

***

I was looking up at Sasuke from in his arms, he was so calm and cool… a soft breeze fondled the hem of my yukata. Everywhere I looked seemed to be tinted slightly around the edges of my vision; it was almost as if I was looking at something very light. Sasuke had stopped running now, where was he going…? I looked round and saw Kakashi-sensei walking out of a river. He came up towards me, and said something, and then Sasuke just gave me to Kakashi-sensei. I couldn't hear what anybody was saying a wave of extreme fatigue washed over me; I couldn't wait until I got home, so I could finally sleep. Kakashi-sensei put me down on the ground; my arms buckled and I flopped over on my side. He patted on my shoulder, and helped me sit back up, he said something again, but I still couldn't hear what anybody was saying. I looked round quizzically at Naruto, Neji and Sasuke… they all looked really solemn, I gave them a sweet smile, trying to cheer them up, but nobody apart from Naruto tried to return it, even if it was forced.

A chill crept over my bare shoulders as I felt Kakashi undoing my obi, and my yukata falling gently to my thighs. I wrapped my arms around my flesh as a breeze wafted past. Kakashi pulled my hands and placed them on the ground, in a secure position, but I lifted one back up to cover up my underwear as I shook my head. I closed my eyes momentarily as I felt Kakashi writing something on my back, on the ground, just about everywhere… I didn't know what was happening… but I didn't care either. Kakashi pushed my head down and tore my hand from my chest and paced it firmly on the ground before he shouted something and made a hand sign.

Everything changed from that moment onwards. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out, my throat felt dry. I felt something pounding into my neck, but I wasn't sure what, I clenched my fists, pebbles accumulating in them in the process. I hung my head breathing deeply as the barrage of pain concluded; it was short, but extremely sour. I felt exhausted, I couldn't breathe, my breaths in became shallow as my trembling arms numbed and eventually I collapsed onto the pebbly shore, a cold gust of wind snapping at my stray strands of hair and searing my skin. I shivered as I looked up at Naruto who was the fist person I saw from my head's resting place on my arm. I tried to reach out for him "N-Naru…to-kun…" he also reached out with his arm, and his and my hands met, and out fingers entwined. I felt safe, I knew I was with Naruto, I felt my hand slip from his as I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

05:59pm, June 23rd –two days before the present time.

Village Hidden in the Leaves

Sasuke Uchiha's P.O.V.

I enviously watched Naruto link hands with Kagerou, he wasn't fit to touch her; I had a burning feeling inside my ribcage that was just dieing to burst out. _'Kagerou is mine and only mine…'_ I thought to myself while frowning. She collapsed, luckily this time she wasn't unconscious, just sleeping. Kakashi walked over and picked her up, she stirred but didn't wake up.

"Was she OK back then…? She didn't have anything funny to eat… or drink…?" Kakashi's eyes settled on Neji, he looked taken aback at the prosecution.

"W-what? I didn't give her anything! She might have just been a little disorientated…" I could sense that he was lying; furthermore, all of the Hyugas were fast asleep, as if they had passed out because of alcohol consumption. Had someone spiked her drink? No… she seemed fine back with Orochimaru, paying attention, anyway. Kakashi raised an eyebrow and then looked around at all of us.

"What are we going to do with her… it's not wise to let the whole village know who she is, but "Sakura" has been "missing" for too long already. We can't just let her stay in her house… she's bound to be ambushed and kidnapped there… Sasuke, now do you see why she wanted to keep it a secret? All I'm saying is, don't hold it against her just because she didn't tell you." I frowned. Why was he only addressing me? Naruto and Neji weren't told either. I couldn't bear to look at Kakashi-sensei, so I just decided to stare at a nearby tree.

"Sempai, if you don't mind me suggesting, but she will be very safe at the Hyuga Complex, when we're sober… but, that was a one-off situation! It will never happen again, please, I think Kagerou-hime should come and stay with us." Kakashi sighed.

"We still have the problem of the missing Sakura. People are starting to notice that she's gone already, Ino came up to me the other day asking if Sakura was avoiding her… Lee asked me to pass on a box of chocolates… people will start wanting answers soon, answers which we simply cannot afford to give." Everybody sighed at this point. There was an awkward silence, nobody knew what to do. "Come on, we should go collect her belongings to bring to the Hyuga Compound." Naruto immediately started heading off towards the village, as did Neji and I, but Kakashi cleared his throat to tell us we were going the wrong way. "Her house is this way."

"What? No it isn't! Her house is this way, near the edge of the village, look I can see its roof through the trees now!" Naruto persuaded.

"No, Naruto, Neji, Sasuke… that's her fake house. It's empty. Her real one is over here." And with that, we all turned around and followed Kakashi-sensei. We had on idea where we were going, there were only trees in this forest, after all. _'She doesn't live in a tree, does she…? No, she can't… she's way too sophisticated for that.'_ I thought. We stopped at a large tree; it was quite big, but not big enough to live in. _'There must be another illusion… that's it!'_ I activated my sharingan to see if I could dispel it, and get a look at her real house. "Well, here we are!" Kakashi said with a wide grin under his mask. _'What? No illusion? Just a tree…?!'_ I exchanged glances with Neji, and looked around at Naruto.

"So… you're telling me… that this girl, who everybody's calling a legendary ninja… one of the last members of Sasuke's clan… lives in a _tree_?!" Naruto said, baffled; as was I, she couldn't live in a tree.

"No, Naruto. She doesn't live _in_ a tree, she lives _above_ the trees." I still didn't understand. Kakashi jumped up onto a protruding branch of the tree he stood in front of, and it began to lower, jerkily, as if there was a mechanism inside it. I saw an entrance form, with a small space inside. "I'll come back for you, wait a minute." Kakashi said as he started winching himself up the inside of it. _'Ingenious…'_ I thought, the design was flawless, nobody would know that there was a platform inside. I looked round, and Naruto was stood there giggling. It, for some reason made me smile too, and eventually we were both laughing. Neji was just standing there, looking at us, as if we were crazy.

Kakashi eventually came back down, without Kagerou, and took Naruto and Neji with him; I was left down the bottom alone, there simply wasn't enough room for me to get in. Kakashi came down again, and told me to come in too. It was quite a tight squeeze for one and a half grown men to fit, I was beginning to imagine Kakashi and Kagerou squished in there together… I shook the image out of my mind as I glared at Kakashi. I think I was overreacting now, but, all of a sudden, I started to become very wary of Kakashi: the way he handled her, talked to her, looked at her…

We reached the top, and Kakashi jumped out of a small hole in the top of the shaft. I did so too, I came face to face with Neji, and Naruto was squashed behind me… that place was really only built for no more then two people. I didn't see Kagerou anywhere; that worried me slightly, but Kakashi was unperturbed, so we carried on following him single file down some wooden walkways that connected one tree to the next. I tried to look down to the forest floor, but the canopy was so thick that I couldn't see a singe thing. _'So that's how it's been hidden… this is actually in the canopy… it wasn't built above or below it, so passing shinobi can't just stumble across it. Ingenious…' _We arrived at a tree house. There were lots of things inside it, just like a normal room. It looked as if it was the equivalent of Kagerou's living room. "OK, Neji, you and Sasuke are going to collect any family photos or trinkets that you find, and put them in this bag." He pointed to a black canvas satchel, one that looked like the one that Sakura had been using at the Tournament. Neji and I both nodded. "Naruto, you and I will be taking any clothes that we find, and putting them in this bag." He pointed to a green draw-string bag in front of him.

We all set off to do our respective tasks, I picked up the satchel and looked inside; there was a piece of paper at the bottom. I looked up at Neji, who was looking at me fixedly and I picked it up and turned it around. It was a picture of Ayame and Kagerou when she was a young child; tears welled up in my eyes when I thought of the remainder of my childhood that I had wasted mourning over the dead and wallowing in revenge. I blinked the tears away and span around before Neji could see my sadness and walked over to a chest of drawers. There were many family photos over it, mostly of Kagerou and her mother, or Kagerou and the rest of the family. Neji walked up behind me, his eyes fixated on one picture. It was a very large one, with lots of people in it. He picked it up and stroked the paper. "That's my father and I…" He said in a whisper.

"Where?" I asked, I didn't realise that Neji would have been in any of them. He pointed to two small figures against a sea of people. There was a young Neji Hyuga, standing next to what looked like a young Hinata, who in turn was standing next to Kagerou. There was a man standing behind Neji, with his hands on his shoulders, I presumed that was his father. "You look like him." I said, trying to cheer him up as I saw tears in his eyes, he blinked them away but one escaped down his cheek which he promptly wiped away. He put the picture gently into the satchel and we resumed our packing.

We had done all of the photos on the dresser, and we moved on from the chest of drawers to a dresser with lots of girly things on it… hair chopsticks, green nail polish, hair ribbons… amongst many other things. I saw from afar another photo stuck to the wall mirror above the dresser and I jogged up to see it. It was a picture of Kagerou and I, back when we were around seven years old. We were in her garden, and she was holding a butterfly in her hand. I began to cry, I couldn't help it, it was too nostalgic. I looked down, and saw that our hands were linked together; we always held hands back then. A flood of memories broke the barrier that I had put up… to forget about her, I remembered everything… every memory took its rightful place in my mind and forced me to view them all. I tore the picture from the mirror and held it in my hand, tears falling onto my wrist. I shouted. I couldn't help myself, all the pain was surfacing again. I slammed both my hands down on the dresser and looked at the picture again. A memory forced itself away from the rest.

"_Look, Sasuke-kun! Look at this butterfly, aren't its patterns pretty?" Kagerou smiled at me, I felt warm inside, she was glowing._

"_Heh, I prefer the blue ones, Kagerou!" The butterfly fluttered away._

"_Oh, Sasuke! Look at what you've done! You've hurt its feelings!" She pouted at me while I giggled. "Do you want to play chase?" She asked, blushing slightly._

"_Does this answer your question?!" I jumped from the tree stump and ran towards her. She was faster then me, she always had been. She was all the way at the other side of the garden, standing at a tree, waiting for me to catch up. I passed a really pretty flower and stopped to pick it, it was peach with long pointed leaves and slightly pink spots. It looked like a star, and it reminded me of Kagerou. When I got to the tree, I whipped it out from behind my back. "Here you go… it reminds me of you, Kagerou." She giggled as she took it from me._

"_Hehe, Sasuke why are you so slow!?" I blushed, she was better then me at everything; I felt slightly jealous. She leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. __**"Thank you for the flower…"**_

I felt something warm on my neck, the last sentence that Kagerou said in my memory sounded weird, as if two people were saying it. I looked around and I saw Kagerou by my cheek with her hand on my shoulder. She had said thank you for the flower as well, as if she knew what I was thinking. Tears came to my eyes again; I didn't want her to see me cry so I looked at the ground. She turned me around and forcefully pulled me towards her in a hug. _'I need this.'_ I thought as I cried into her breast, her yukata was still undone from the sealing jutsu that Kakashi did; I pulled the fabrics of her yukata together to preserve her modesty and cried, I sobbed and cried and could feel her crying too, I felt her warm tears drop onto my face and her stroking my hair. I took a deep breath in and pulled away from her. I looked up into her eyes, they were mesmerising, but I drew myself away from them when I said "Thank you… for everything." Before turning away and putting the picture in the open bag that Neji was holding. I avoided his gaze, he seemed really puzzled, probably due to Kagerou saying "thank you for the flower" randomly with no clear justification. I walked passed Neji and said to Kakashi-sensei "We have everything from this room, is there anything else we should do?" Before Kakashi could even answer Naruto butted in and said:

"Hey! Guys! Look, why does Kagerou keep all her clothes from when she was little; they look waaay to small for her." I looked around and I saw Naruto holding up a little dress that looked the right size for a small doll. It was the same outfit that she had been wearing in some of the pictures. "She looks as if a five year old would fit into them!" I glared at Naruto before snatching them away; he had no idea how sentimental the clothes might have been. I hadn't kept any of my clothes from when I was young, as soon as I grew out of them, I simply threw them away, not wanting to remember the memories they evoked.

"Don't you know what these are?!" I shouted at him, he seemed to look slightly unnerved to my sudden rupture. He didn't reply. "These are Kagerou's clothes from when her mother was still alive, heck; her mother might have even got them for her! Be more respectful for other people's property, I don't see anybody making fun of your sentimental belongings, do you?!" I took another deep breath in, to prepare myself for another barrage of comments on Naruto's ignorance when I felt a soft touch on my curse mark shoulder. I usually never let anybody touch my curse mark- it typically was very painful to the touch, but, it seemed that time nothing happened. I looked around and saw Kagerou giving me a pleading look; I couldn't help but succumb to her engulfing calmness; sometimes it seemed that butterflies weren't the only thing she could charm- she always had a knack of getting Naruto out of trouble when he was stuck in a rut, and it seemed as if she was doing it to me today. I wondered why that was, how she could do it, it seemed as if she could project her emotions through people to make them feel the way she was, or sympathise with her in some way, sometimes halting their actions in the process. I had noticed, also that in battle, if she ever became too emotional, her opponent more often then not faltered in their attacks on her, especially if they were male.

I watched as her hand moved down to pick up the small garments and gently popped them in the drawstring sack. She turned to Kakashi-sensei and said calmly. "I heard you talking earlier about me going to live at the Compound. I would really like to spend more time with my relatives, but… Kakashi-sensei, something still really worries me… what am I going to tell Ino…? The easiest option would be to just tell her the truth, but when forced with a pressing situation, I don't know whether I can trust her to keep the secret, she might just even tell someone like Shikamaru, and he's clever enough to work the rest out, and then what will happen. Kakashi-sensei… I-I'm really _scared_, Kakashi-sensei… this is why I didn't want anybody to know, I knew that this would happen. I don't want to endanger anybody with my presence… so I think it would be better if I go into self-induced exile… or, even better, if I just disappear of the face of the earth. I hate to see any of you in pain or discomfort because people are after me, it was agonizing enough to watch Neji try to protect me back at the Compound when Orochimaru appeared… I'd rather if you all just left me alone." And with that, she turned away, and sped out of the door.

Kakashi dropped the draw-string bag and Neji let the photo frame he was holding smash against the floor. Everything swam before my eyes, I had to do something, but Kakashi gave me a look that screamed out at me to stay where I was. He tugged Naruto's arm, and they were both gone. I stood there, staring out of the doorway; my whole world had been turned upside-down at the age of seven, then, again three days previously and again now. All the turning was making me feel quite queasy and I collapsed down onto my knees, my field of vision not flinching to my quick decent to the rough, reed flooring. Tears silently slid down my face in synchronised espionage, as if they were missing-nin searching out Kagerou. I shuddered. I looked down at the floor as I slammed my fist down on it, feeling the wood buckle under my powerful strike. I decided to walk outside, to see if I could hear her voice in the distance, for her melancholy song to caress my cheeks as it is carried by the wind. Nothing could be heard but the sound of rustling leaves, I had lost hope; maybe it would be better if I ended my life instead of her, then she would have no one to worry about, then she would be at peace with herself, and I would be at rest. I remember my words to her the other night: "I was willing to die for you."… _'No, I was wrong when I said that, I __**am**__ willing to die for you… Kagerou-chan.'_

***

I was running as fast as I possibly could through the deciduous trees in the forest, I needed to get away from them, and forget everything that had happened. I remembered the night that I spent at Sasuke's house, how he had looked at me so readily, with such burning passion in his eyes, I shook the image from my head, with the tears that had accumulated around my eyes, I felt someone following me, but I really couldn't care less whether it was Orochimaru, or the Akatsuki. If I was to die, then I was going to die, it would be for the best anyway. I managed to stop at a large crevice in the cold, hard stone ground. I stopped right at the edge of it, looking down into its interminable darkness. I felt the air escape me as I felt someone pull me backwards, away from the edge; their warm arms around my stomach pulling me further and further away. I didn't know who it was, I didn't want to see, I let them drag me across the stones, I didn't put up a fight, I just wanted to stop being a burden on everyone's shoulders… I felt a droplet of warm liquid land onto my cheek, whoever my captor was, he was taller then me, and was crying into my hair. My eyes became distant, I was aware of my surroundings, but were detached from them all the same.

The person behind me pulled me tighter in, they were warm against my cold body, a light wind had picked up, and my open yukata wasn't very protective from the elements. The arms around my waist slipped away and up to my shoulders, they grabbed me firmly and twisted my body around to face them. It was Naruto, I had a feeling it was him, but I didn't want or need to think about it. Naruto tried to look me in the eyes, but I merely returned him with a blank stare. His eyebrows furrowed and he pulled my body closer to his, sharing his warmth from the harsh, snapping wind. He put his forehead onto mine and closed his eyes. We stood there for a while, listening to each other's steady breathing; it was calming, no, soothing to my broken soul. Eventually he opened his eyes and looked at me again, our foreheads still in constant contact with each other. I returned his stare with a sorrowful look, which in turn made Naruto's eyes water. Nobody said anything for a moment; I decided to break the silence, to explain my previous actions. "I'm the one who made everyone suffer the most... I've just been getting it wrong... just been screwing it up... I don't want to get it wrong anymore... don't want to screw it up anymore." I said, my voice quivering from the cold as well as the mixed emotions inside of me. I seemed as if Naruto opened his mouth slightly to answer, but he rocked his head downwards and pressed his lips to mine.

I was in shock, my heart skipped a beat at the sudden turn of events, my mind blanked and I couldn't think of anything. I closed my eyes, the kiss seemed everlasting, I opened my mouth slightly to move my head back to ask what the hell Naruto thought he was doing, but as my head backed away from his, his arms slid up to my neck, and the other cupped the back of my head, forcing it closer to his own. He saw the opportunity to dive his tongue into my slightly parted lips, sending it thrashing around in my mouth. He wasn't a very experienced kisser, that was for sure, but that made it more appealing, that made me want to kiss him back, his hand behind my head, forcing himself deeper and deeper into me. And I succumbed to his childishness, his ignorance to how a kiss was supposed to feel like, and I kissed him back, more passionately then he had kissed me. It was my first kiss, so no wonder I was so hesitant, but kissing him made me feel so much better, he cared, he made me forget about everything that worried me and forced me to focus on the present, not the future. His arm slipped back down to my waist as he pulled me closer towards him, it was then where images of Sasuke flashed through my mind… him lying on top of me on his sofa, him whispering into my ear how he'd wait for me… I remembered how I had promised myself when I was little that Sasuke would be my fist kiss…

I pulled away, frustrated, confused, dazed, surprised… I looked back at Naruto who looked equally as shocked. "I… I thought you loved Sakura?!" I shouted to him, slowly backing away. Naruto looked at me with surprise as his face changed colour to a light pink.

"Y-you are Sakura, Kagerou! Kakashi told me, I know everything!" He shouted back, as two metres were now the no man's land between us. I shuddered at the cold that hit me as soon as I had parted from him; he was making me warm, he was comforting me. _'Not like Sasuke…' _I thought to myself. My teeth chattered as I stared back at him, still edging backwards ever so slowly. "I fell in love with you, not the way you looked, pink hair or black, I love you from the bottom of my heart!" He shouted back at me. I froze; I didn't understand what to do… I loved Sasuke, that was definite… but, I was suddenly getting feelings for Naruto as well… I mean, I had returned the kiss that he had given me, and hadn't slapped him when he leaned in either. Tears rolled down my cheeks, I was confused. Naruto carefully made his way towards me, hesitantly taking one step after the other. "C-come away from the edge," he said to me, "please…" he finished. I looked back, and saw the edge of the cliff no less then two centimetres away from my heels. I jumped foreword slightly, not expecting the drop to be so close, and right into his warm arms. I sighed. He pulled me away from the edge again, it seemed as if our rolls had swapped; I wasn't his keeper anymore, he was mine.

"N-Naruto…ku-kun… thank you, for everything." He smiled to himself as he took off his jumpsuit sweater and wrapped it around my shoulders. "Th-thank you, but… Sasuke… he claimed me as his, I cannot accept your love, Naruto. I am deeply sorry, but it simply wouldn't work… both of you love me, and I can't deal with that." Naruto's facial expressions dropped, he looked down at the ground, at the space in between us. He looked up at me with a forced smile.

"That's ok, Kagerou… I'll always be here for you anyway, if you ever need me." I felt my heart pang; I wasn't just going to treat him like a second option, like a consolation prize if things didn't work out between Sasuke and me. I needed to tell him that I didn't think of him as the "second option".

"Naruto…" I kissed his cheek, "you are too precious to be a second option to Sasuke. You need to lead your own life your own way, and forget about submitting yourself to something that might not work out. I appreciate your kindness and affection, I always have, but, I cannot stand to see you like this." A tear slid down my cheek as I looked deep into his cerulean eyes. "Please… can we go now, it's cold out here." He nodded silently, and walked with me back to Kakashi-sensei. Kakashi looked worried, but I wasn't sure who he was more worried about. We made our way back to my tree house, but I didn't want to go upstairs with Kakashi and Naruto, so I asked if Naruto could stay down on the forest floor with me whilst Kakashi went to go fetch Sasuke and Neji. Sasuke looked rally beaten up when he arrived, not physically, but mentally, I wondered if I had gone too far. He slowly walked up to me, not smoothly as he used to, but more hesitantly, and gave me a quick hug before walking off with Kakashi, leaving me with Neji and Naruto for company at the back of the group. The journey back to the compound was silent; nobody made a single sound to each other until we arrived at the gates. Kakashi waved us off, telling me that I would be fine until morning, and he would come to find me as soon as possible, then poofed away. Naruto told me to stay safe before turning around and walking off.

I looked at Sasuke, he seemed really troubled, I was just about to tell him that I was sorry about what I had said to him today, when he grabbed my hand and looked into my eyes. "You're coming home with me today…" He stated, I was shocked, everyone had agreed that I was going to stay at the Hyuga Complex. I looked around at Neji for him to say something, but he looked at me blankly before saying:

"Sasuke and I managed to come to a mutual agreement while Naruto and Kakashi-sempai went after you today. I will allow you one night at Sasuke's house if you are brought back in top condition by seven tomorrow morning." I was shocked; they were treating me like an item, something that you'd lend to someone… like a toy. I felt violated; I couldn't believe that Neji agreed to it, but before I could even say goodbye Sasuke began dragging me down the road towards his house. I didn't know what to say, or even how to say it. And before I knew it I had been dragged out of Neji's view. I looked at Sasuke, wondering what brought the sudden change of plan on.

***

We arrived at Sasuke's house without a single word uttered from either of our lips. He let go of my hand as he opened the door, we both stepped inside. I wasn't so sure what to do, why I was there… I just looked at him as he guided me up the stairwell. My blood froze when a thought occurred in my mind; the other night, Sasuke looked as if he wanted to do more then just hug me, to do more then just comfort me when I was upset… I wasn't ready, I couldn't be ready, we were both only fourteen… but, then again, because the life of a ninja is usually so short, people get caught up in more adult-like things ahead of their time. Like some of the Konoha Chunin were already going down to the local inn to have a few bottles of sake after missions to celebrate, or drown their sorrows… and they were only my age. I shook the assumption from my head; I thought it would be better just to ask him. "S-Sasuke-kun?" He stopped and turned towards me.

"Yes, Kagerou-chan?" He asked with a hint of urgency in his voice, which worried me deeply. I pondered for a short time how to ask him without causing offence. In the meanwhile, Sasuke had moved slightly closer towards me, which had made me move backwards on instinct, which had made him move closer again, until my back brushed against his landing wall. I began to feel very hot under the collar; I wished he wasn't so close. I craved his attention, and touch… but his posture, atmosphere and gaze was slightly unnerving.

"I… just wanted to know why you wanted me here… tonight." I said, truthfully. He smiled from the corners of his mouth; it was a crooked smile, one that said "I know something that you don't". He leaned in, closer to my body, his breath hot on my collarbones. He encased me with his arms, putting them forcefully on the wall on either side of me, bending them slowly as he moved continuously closer in. He leaned in, past my mouth, to my ear, and whispered.

"I need you, I need this… you are my all… and if I am going to go down, then I want to go down with you. Just say you'll stay," he said. "Just stay with me, tonight." My eyes widened at his proposal. "Not like that," he said. "Just… Just until I'm asleep." He smiled again before leaning closer to my neck, the side where the newly acquired curse mark was, and kiss it gently. He made a trail of soft butterfly kisses up my neck to my jaw, and then resting softly against my lips. His right arm wandered to my shoulder, and began to peel the yukata away from my skin, he began doing the same on the other shoulder too, and then let it drop to the landing floor, he chuckled slightly into my lips as he pressed them to mine once more. I couldn't restrain myself any longer… I needed him… I needed that… I slipped my hands up inside his shirt and around to his back, pulling him closer towards me, now opening my lips, letting him gain entry like I knew he'd been wanting to do. A moan escaped my lips that I had been trying to suppress; he was an excellent kisser… He chuckled again at my obvious pleasure in the situation. He slipped his arms around my wrists and pulled my hands out from under his shirt and put them against the wall above my head, kissing me again. Eventually he let my arms go so he could make traces around the curves in my body, one hand resting on my thigh, the other on my hip. He pressed his hips into mine, it was slightly painful as I had such little clothing on, and his jutting hipbones pressed deeply into my own, and I let out a small cry in pain.

"S-Sasuke…kun…" I breathed into his neck; he had finally released his grasp on my lips and was now kissing back down my neck. At the sound of my voice, the hand caressing my thigh lifted it around the nook above his hips; he lifted me up against the wall with his other arm, placing the other thigh in the same place symmetrically. He was completely supporting my weight off the ground, sharing the strain with the wall behind me; he leant slightly forwards to kiss my naval, but completely skipped the obvious two off-limit areas, he respected my privacy and conserved my modesty. I was thankful; I wasn't ready for such intimate interaction.

He stopped kissing me for a moment, and looked up at me, a smile on his face that I couldn't help but giggle at. He slowly controlled me slipping down by leaning closer and closer to the wall as I descended back to the floor. He smiled and leaned into me again, his hipbones indenting my skin, I whimpered again and Sasuke dived into my mouth at the opportunity. His tongue probed my mouth, exploring it, it lasted for a long time, and I had to pull back to take a breath. He moved his face closer and kissed me softly on the nose, "aishiteiru… Kagerou-chan." My pace pinked, people only usually use that form of _I love you_ in bed with each other… usually people only say 'daisuki datteba yo' to their partner or family member. I felt slightly afraid; I wondered what he was going to do next. His smile broadened as he took my hand and ran with me into his bedroom.

I was thrust unto the bed, and my breath escaped me as he sat straddle over my hips. He began removing his shirt and after, he leant down onto my stomach, his arms supporting himself while pinning me to the bed by my wrists. He gave me another soft kiss on the lips before removing his trousers. We were both lying in his bed, in our underwear, looking into each other's eyes dreamily; he lifted the covers over his back and lay down next to me, and put his arm around my shoulders and I curled up next to his body. I fluttered my eyelids closed, but Sasuke began wriggling, I opened my eyes up again, and saw that he was smiling… and soon enough laughing. I cocked my head away from the mattress and asked him, "why are you laughing, Sasuke-kun?" His laughing subsided and he looked back down at me before slowly saying:

"You're eyelashes tickle…" I couldn't help but laugh at what he had just said… it was too laughable not to. I gently rested my head down onto his shoulder, and he hugged me closer against his warm body. I smiled whilst I closed my eyes, listening to his steady heartbeat, which made me slowly drift soundly to sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

09:38pm, June 23rd –two days before the present time.

Village Hidden in the Leaves

Deidara's P.O.V.

I stood on my giant clay bird, gliding and swooping above the silent city that was Konoha. I was searching for a certain someone's home, and if she wasn't there, then at one of her friend's houses. I had a feeling that she wouldn't be home, so, instead I made a beeline for his house.

The Uchiha's house.

I chuckled thinking about a mini Itachi running around causing trouble, I had heard that he was far the opposite of Itachi, funny, though… seeing as they are brothers. I wondered what this… girl looked like, back with my briefing with Pain, the only photograph I received was one of her mother. I was pretty ticked off, seeing as I had to imagine exactly what she looked like, aided by her mother's picture.

I sighed as my clay bird descended through a cloud, which I was very unhappy about- seeing as I got all wet from the moisture. And then I felt cold. The worst thing was, though, is that I wasn't even allowed any action; Pain specifically said: "under any circumstances do _not_ reveal your presence to her or anyone else. You are also not allowed to make contact with her in any way, this includes kidnapping! Your mission is simply to observe and collect data. Are we clear on this!?" I sighed once more. Spying and espionage was fun and all… but I preferred just to blow things up.

By then I had descended far enough to be level with the tallest building, so I decided to carry out my search for the Uchiha's residence. I used my scope to zoom in on windows and search for any clan signs or house names.

There was, also, the chance that she was staying with her father at the Hyuga complex- but I had received orders not to go within a one hundred metre radius of the place, with good reason. My scope rested on a window and zoomed in slightly, there were two figures inside; they looked on the short side- which meant that they can't have been adults. I decided to fly a little bit closer, to inspect who they were, as they were in the area code of where the Uchiha's house was supposed to be.

I was only about ten metres away from the building's window. It was a quaint little house, looked as if it only had one bedroom. I switched my scope to night vision, as the only light in the room was coming from the moon. I could hear faint voices; I could barely make out what they were saying. There was definitely a female voice, and it seemed like a male's too, as it was deeper. Even with the night vision on, I couldn't see much in the green-tainted surroundings. I switched to heat vision. It was then when I made out to very visible, obviously very hot, figures. They had been in the hallway, so I hadn't seen them, but their heat trail had burned through the wall and straight into my scope.

I laughed silently when I realised why the two people were so hot- one of them, probably the female had been pushed up against the landing wall, and it seemed as if the other was ravishing her (or him). I let out a soft chuckle as I slowly drifted closer to the window, I wanted to hear what they were saying- or, perhaps, to phrase it better, the noises they were making.

"Just stay with me, tonight" There was a pause. "Not like that, just… just until I'm asleep." The corners of my mouth curled up into a smile, it seemed as if I was going to get some action after all.

No, I wouldn't categorise myself as a pervert, I was simply spying on an alleged target: it wasn't my business what they were doing; I was there to collect data and take pictures of the culprit.

To get out of the line of vision through the window, I swooped over to the left, and hovered at an angle to the window, so I could see in, but the people inside couldn't see me, unless they were to actually put their head out of the window. I was also close enough to hear barely audible pants and murmurs… I began to feel a little hot under the collar. It was then when the lovely words of confirmation were uttered by a wonderfully feminine and obviously tired-out voice: "S-Sasuke…kun…" That was it. That's all I needed for confirmation that I was at the right house, Sasuke Uchiha's. And I was ninety-nine percent sure that I had just heard Kagerou.

I heard quick, frenzied footsteps as I witnessed, with my heat vision de-activated, two scantily-clad bodies run into the room. One, was definitely Sasuke Uchiha- he may not look like Itachi's double, but he was most definitely an Uchiha; the other, a thin framed, busty little girl looked uncannily similar to the photograph I received during my briefing, the only easily noticeable difference was her eyes- they weren't black like the Uchiha's were famous for, they also weren't void of anything like the Hyuga's. They had a small sliver of bright, sparkling blue around a dilated pupil. I decided that this was an opportunity to take pictures- as they were obviously too engrossed in each other to see the gigantic floating bird outside their window.

I felt a little bit embarrassed, taking pictures of her like that with Sasuke- I'd have to show them to the rest of the Akatsuki for when Pain puts the whole "bijuu" plan on hold, and starts enforcing the "Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga" plan… he said it was a genius one, and that we would be even more powerful then we had ever been- as long as we followed it word for word. I was a bit sceptical at first, but he seemed pretty confident, so I guess I have nothing to loose.

In three of the pictures I caught a bit of the Uchiha kid undressing himself- obscuring Kagerou-hime (as everybody seemed to be calling her) slightly, but it didn't matter very much. I took one final picture of them both- as a keepsake for Itachi for when I got back, I'm sure he'd love me to bits after I show him; "your little brother's all gown up now, he's even got a girlfriend, Itachi!" I can imagine the look on his face when I show him- priceless. Let's see who's so emotionless now, Itachi!

The next thing I had been instructed to do was to asses her physical state: her strength, chakra levels, any visible handicaps or wounds, etc, etc… As far as I could make out, she had a few bruises on her arms and lower torso; also, as I looked closer I saw a black mark on her neck, although I couldn't quite make out exactly what it was. I could sense her chakra spiking subtly but it didn't seem much of a threat, in fact, I wasn't so sure whether it was because of something that had happened earlier, but, it seemed as if she didn't have much chakra at all. I studied her physical stature: slim, not much excess fat or muscle visible, she seemed to be maturing into a woman, she was quite busty for a little girl, I could see why the Uchiha boy took an interest in her, unfortunately, she's not my type. At first glance, I wouldn't have thought that she was a kunoichi at all; she certainly didn't have the body of a person used to constant fighting.

That led me on to believe that, she really wouldn't be a very hard opponent to beat. I could knock on the door at dawn, and make off with her, much to the delight of Pain. _'Screw leader's plan!'_ I thought, _'I'll kidnap her tomorrow morning, and take her straight back to the lair; it'll save lot's of time too!'_

And that's exactly what I planned to do: I'd kidnap her in the morning, and show my home-coming trophy to everyone, especially Itachi, later on that day. I decided to hide my bird in some forest near by, and catch some sleep before sunrise. _'I hope they don't worry when they find out I'll be late back… yeah.'_ I thought, before I drifted into a light snooze.


	13. Chapter 13

06:59pm, June 24th – one day before the present time.

Village Hidden in the Leaves

Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga's P.O.V.

My eyelids fluttered open at the blinding light that had entered Sasuke's room in the morning. I stretched in bed, and looked up at Sasuke's sleeping face. I smiled; he was lying with his chin resting on the crown of my head, his arms encasing my body protectively, as if preventing someone from coming and stealing me from him. I suddenly remembered the deadline that I had to be back at the Hyuga Complex by, and I sat bolt upright in bed, turning jerkily to pick up Sasuke's bedside clock, it read 07:03. I jumped out of bed, Sasuke had stirred at my sudden movements and saw me gracefully stand up, and then slip on his shirt on the floor and fall flat on my face. I sat up and blew the bangs out of my eyes as I looked around at Sasuke sitting up, and failing, because of how much he was laughing. I scowled at him as he offered me his hand to pull me back up to standing position. He smiled a foxy smile back at me, and brushed himself off, before looking at the clock and looking straight back at me.

"You were supposed to be back five minutes ago!" He said, his voice rising slightly. I looked desperately at his panic, and then at the bed where all of my hair accessories were strewn over it, my hand drifted to my hair, and realised the pony tail was loose- only being held in place by a ribbon; I took the ribbon out, and wrapped it around my wrist hastily before looking up at Sasuke with a pained look in my eye.

"I know, it's not my fault that I woke up late, is it? Couldn't you have negotiated with Neji for me to be back just a little bit later?!" I retorted. Just as I finished my sentence, a loud knock on the front door could be heard downstairs. "That must be Neji!" I said, and without thinking I pulled on Sasuke's t-shirt from the floor, to provide some cover, and jogged down the stairs, passing a small mirror in the hallway in the process. I didn't look to bad for a person that had just gotten up. My makeup was slightly smudged, and my lipstick was a much less vibrant red then it had been _'probably because of Sasuke'_ I thought as I turned the door handle, I heard Sasuke groggily trudge down the staircase.

As the door creaked open I was surprised to not see Neji stood in front of me, but a fair man, with striking blue eyes, much like my own, long blonde hair that reminded me of Ino's; wearing an over-sized black cloak. His first words were: "Hello… Kagerou-hime…" and he gave me a crooked smile. I knew that something was wrong, especially seeing as the cloak that he was wearing was not an ordinary one, it had red clouds on it; it was the cloak of the Akatsuki. I stepped backwards as he said my name, he knew who I was… he was there for me… I tried to slam the door in his face, but he put his foot in front of it so it only closed half-way and kicked it off its hinges. I turned and sprinted up the stairs, where Sasuke grabbed my hand, and pulled me even faster up them and back into his room. I could hear the fair man slowly making his way up the stairs, as if he had all the time in the world. I slammed the door shut and put my back against it, as if it was going to stop him from coming in. I looked up at Sasuke, he stared right back at me, looking extremely worried. I felt the man knock on the door that I was pressing my back against, he then calmly said: "are you going to let me in… Kagerou…?" There was a slight pause and then he said, answering my silence with, "No? I guess I'll just have to make my own way in, yeah." With that, I felt and heard a large explosion, it ripped the door foreword, as well as me and I landed down at Sasuke's feet. I pushed the charred remains of the door off my back and Sasuke helped me up again, my legs wobbled slightly as I stood up, and my back hurt, I could already feel the bruises appearing.

"Who the hell are you?!" Sasuke shouted at the fair man, who simply smiled back, before saying:

"What? You don't recognise my attire? The same uniform your older brother was wearing the last time you met, I believe, yeah." He smiled evilly at the last clause. Sasuke's breathing quickened on the back of my neck; he began pushing me behind him as he muttered:

"Kuso… How do you know my brother… and why are you here?!" He shouted, irate.

"Your brother is… I guess a… partner in crime of mine… so to speak, and I am Deidara, the great artist of the Akatsuki, yeah!" He gave a slight chuckle at his introduction and then took his hand out of his cloak and as if there was something in it, he held it palm-up. It looked like his hand was… _opening_… and a little white thing crawled out of it. "… and this… is my art!" He said, proud of his creation and chuckled some more; it was then that I realised that his hand didn't _open_, he had a _mouth_ on his _hand_… I shivered as I saw more things crawl out of it and start jumping off him and crawling towards Sasuke and me. Sasuke tensed, but I acted on instinct once more, and grabbed him round the middle as the white things were reaching a critical range and performed the Three Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin, that time a lot better then the last. I heard lots of bangs around me as I stopped spinning, and realised that they were explosives. _'He's producing explosives?!' _I thought, bewildered as to how on earth he managed to do it.

Deidara laughed, I looked up at him as he stared me right in the eyes while saying "You're just too good, aren't you? You _are_ the little prodigy that everyone calls you… yeah." He smiled at me as I frowned, he was mocking me, I knew that those… white spiders -that's all I could describe them as, weren't his best. I decided to attack before he could make another move, I activated my Byakugan, and charged at him, he seemed startled as I prodded him in the middle of his chest with my two forefingers; I moved and attacked him in exactly the same way that I had watched a lot of the other Hyugas had. It was really one of the very few tries that I had fought like that, as I had been previously focusing on my Sharingan Kekkai Genkai, and really neglecting my Byakugan, and that was my downfall. I had very good chakra control… probably too good, as I didn't exert enough chakra, and only caused pain, not damage like I had been hoping for. Deidara stepped backward, clutching his chest, panting, before looking back up at me, smiling again. I saw a small white spider drop from his cloak sleeve and land right next to my foot. I had not time to react, as it exploded, sending both Deidara and I flying backwards. He hit the wall in the landing, and I flew into Sasuke's arms with an "oof" and a "thud". From the explosion, Sasuke's thin, baggy cotton shirt had been reduced to cinders, peeling of my skin, and it eventually just dropped to the ground. I lifted myself from Sasuke's grasp, just as Deidara got up out in the landing. I felt exposed, only in my underwear once more, but found it impractical to spend time hunting for more clothes, so I merely sucked it up, and tried to look impartial towards the issue.

I decided that the Byakugan wasn't the right direction to go in with fighting style towards that type of opponent, so I decided that Genjutsu provided by my Sharingan would be more practical. I activated my Sharingan, only to realise that I was still seeing through my Byakugan as well. I was blinded by too much information, everywhere I looked I was seeing 150% more then I was used to… the Byakugan was making everything shine a pure white, and the sharingan was exposing lots of other things, and making even the slightest of movements magnified tenfold. It had never happened before, and my head was swimming with all of the information I was receiving, I couldn't think properly, and fell to my hands and knees, crying out at the sudden migraine that was seeping in from the corners of my mind. I felt something hot and wet run down my face, I thought it was tears, until I looked down at it dripping down onto my thigh and saw its shining crimson colour. My eyes were bleeding… that wasn't supposed to happen, I began to panic, what was I supposed to do?! I tried to cancel both the Kekkai Genkai, but I was shuddering and my head hurt too much, and I couldn't do anything.

And then I felt a hand on my chin, it pushed my face gently upwards, and I felt more blood spill out of the corners of my eyes, but this time mixed with tears. I opened my eyes and was met with Deidara crouched in front of me, holding my head up, as if he was inspecting my face. "Oh dear… seems as if you have over exerted yourself… does this run in the clan? Because I've seen this happen many times with Itachi-san… yeah." I tried to frown but found myself falling to the side, and I heard Sasuke shout something, but I didn't hear what because I was too focused on what Deidara had just said _'what does he mean by he's "seen this happen many times with Itachi-san"…?' _I closed my eyes once more, and felt my head bang against the floor before my mind blacked-out.

***

I watched as Kagerou's head hit the floor, I was mortified that I hadn't done anything, but the mentioning of my brother had made my blood boil. I shouted out to Deidara as he let her head escape his fingers, bastard. He looked up at me, and smiled his usual smile. I ran towards him, not comprehending what I was attempting to do, until it was too late, I had already shouted "CHIDORI!" and was inches away from Deidara's chest before he dodged backwards, and threw a white bird-like object at me, which exploded on contact. I was blown backwards, my bare chest searing with pain that was caused by the explosion, I saw lots of blood all over myself, and my eyesight began to fail as I saw Deidara pick the unconscious Kagerou in his arms, and turned around and walked out of the room. I wanted to get up… I needed to stop him, but my head just banged down onto the floor, useless.

I closed my eyes, and thought of the memories Kagerou and I made together. I remembered the one time, on a hot summer's day, us sitting with our feet in her Koi pond, and how she was talking to me about how important it was to always help your friends- even if you broke the rules. I remember her saying "Breaking the rules is bad… people who break the rules are bad… but, people who stand there and watch as their comrades fall in battle are even worse people." I knew that she was right; I simply couldn't put her teachings into practise, my chest burning at the constant loss of blood. I jerkily put my hands either side of my body, and gradually pushed myself up, hissing and wincing at the pain, but I didn't let that stop me, Deidara and Kagerou would have been long gone by then, but I had to go and tell someone… I gradually got to my feet- the pain almost unbearable, and took one step towards the door. I almost collapsed due to my weakening state, but I steadied myself on the bedside table near me, and carried on moving… I had to, it was for Kagerou; I was doing it for Kagerou. My heart shattered at the realisation that she really was gone again, and I stopped at the doorframe to the landing.

"What's the point…?" I whispered to the imaginary crowd surrounding me. In my head they jeered, they booed and hissed at my discouragement. I stared at their imaginary faces; I wondered whether giving up was the right thing to do. I shook my head furiously, "I have to go find help…!" I said, this time louder as I lunged for the banister to aid my decent to the front door. Each step I took was focusing the pain, I let my self be immersed in it; I couldn't hold it back anymore. I cried out with each step I took, the pain increasing tenfold, I had reached the hallway, and was met with the front door falling off its hinges, and two figures running towards the threshold in the distance. I tried to see who it was, but I felt my mind slipping, and my legs weakening, my eyesight crumbled as I fell to the floor.

Somebody caught me before I felt my body hit the ground, they gruffly tuned me over after placing me on the floor, and began shaking me wildly and shouting into my ears. I blinked a few times- I couldn't see who it was, or why they were shouting. My eyesight eventually recovered slightly, and my gaze was met with Kakashi staring right at me, tears beginning to well up in the corner of his visible eye. My heart lunged into my throat as I tried to blurt out everything that had happened, I opened my mouth, but all that came out was a cry of pain. I cursed myself for not grasping the opportunity, as Kakashi pulled me to my feet, and I saw Neji standing behind him, his Byakugan activated. Kakashi began to drag me through the doorframe, and out onto the street- I pushed him off me and looked around for signs of Kagerou and Deidara, I saw a string of beads that had come off her headdress lying, broken along the ground to my left. Kakashi growled and grabbed my arm, and resumed dragging me down the street- towards the hospital, to my right. I punched his arm off me, and staggered towards the beads, and fell to the ground there, Kakashi shouted again.

"We need to get you to the infirmary, Sasuke!" I looked around at him, and picked up the beads. "What is it?!" He said, pressed for time. I let out a sharp cry- the pain had spiked to unbearable once more. I desperately gathered my wits together and managed to hoarsely choke out:

"Kagerou… Akatsuki! Sh-she was t-taken!" Tears fell down my face again, remembering her presence. "De-Deidara… explosions!" I was blurting out random and useless information, but Kakashi seemed to be stringing it together- it would have taken a genius to put two and two together, but that was what Kakashi was there for. His eye widened as he finally realised exactly what happened, and jumped on me, grabbing my shoulders and making me cry out once more. He stared directly into my eyes and in an almost inaudible whisper he said:

"Where did he take her…?" I had no answer; I merely stared at the ground behind him and bowed my head. I was tired, no, exhausted. I really needed to sleep… No! I shook myself out of it, I wasn't tired, I had just woken up; I was weak from my blood loss, I looked at the massive pool of crimson liquid surrounding me and then looked back up at Kakashi. He looked anxious, he pulled me up onto my feet, and beckoned Neji over- who was watching, not wanting to intervene from the front door of my house. Kakashi spoke to me softly, an unusual calm undertone appearing, "Neji will take you to the hospital, I need to go and alert Tsunade-sama of the current situation." I nodded weakly, and he pushed me onto Neji's shoulder. We began at a quickening pace to the infirmary, and I was glad to find that Neji could take most of my weight without complaint.

On the way to the hospital, I asked Neji "so, what happened with your uncle, then? Was-" I was cut off by my already dry throat suddenly tasting like metal, and then I started coughing and spluttering blood all over Neji's robes. He seemed afraid, and adjusted his position so I was higher up on his shoulder. I resumed my question once the hacking and coughing subsided. "Was he angry that Kagerou wasn't there?"

Neji frowned, and sighed. I could see the hospital's white doors in the distance. "Hiashi was angry, but I managed to persuade him that she was in safe hands… looks like that's a lie now. I can imagine her father being furious when he finds out what happened, and I believe that you and I will be on the receiving end of it." Neji was quiet for a moment before frowning and opening his mouth to speak as we entered the hospital. "You've got to remember, Sasuke, that Hiashi missed Kagerou as much as you, and she hadn't spent nearly as much time with him as with you before today. He will be very upset."

I croaked out my name and age to the receptionist, who pointed Neji and I over to a room, and said, "A doctor will be over right away." I sat down on the bed, my blood pooling at my lap, I was afraid, I didn't know if I could ever see Kagerou again. At that rate, I would have been dead within the following three minutes. A doctor and his assistant came bounding through the door.

"What's the situation, and how did you get the wound, young man." The doctor said breathlessly.

I was about to reply, but I clutched my hand to my chest and groaned, leaning foreword and stared at my blood dripping onto the tiles. The assistant rushed over and pushed me back up onto the bed, and shouted over her shoulder: "it's worse then we thought! He has major injuries to his vital organs, and his chakra network has been disconnected in many places!" The doctor rushed foreword, but the pain was amounting, and my eyelids fluttered closed as I saw the two looming bodies over my head.

***

I watched quietly as the doctor worked on Sasuke's wound. He had been at it for over an hour; it didn't seem to be getting any better, with constant shouts of, "His heart's failing, doctor!" And, "administer more sedative!" I was worried, because I hadn't heard from Kakashi-sempai at all, and Hiashi hadn't come and asked about anything either. I felt completely isolated watching events unfold.

After a short while the doctor took off his blood-stained gloves, and threw them onto the equipment tray to his left and turned around to speak to me. "I'm afraid I did my best, but, he may need further operations for his life to go back to normal." He sighed, "But for the moment, he should be okay." I nodded. "Are you a friend of his?" He asked.

"I would be lying if I said yes." I replied, truthfully.

"Oh? Are you the one who inflicted the wound onto him?!" He retorted, with furious undertones.

"That would also be a lie." I said, calmly, it seemed if the doctor was finding it all very confusing.

"So you're not his friend, but you didn't want to hurt him…?"

"That is correct."

"Could you tell me how he got such an injury?"

"Possibly, but, I'm afraid I didn't see it first-hand, so I would only be repeating what he said." I tried to think of a way to say it, without revealing too much information. "Sasuke, in between cries of pain said something about an explosion… I think that he was attacked by a shinobi that had many explosives to hand, as his house was also scorched." The doctor nodded and looked thoughtfully back at Sasuke.

"Thank you for the information, but, I'm afraid as you are neither a relative nor friend you cannot stay here." I was anticipating that sentence, and prepared to leave. I needed to go find Kakashi, surely he and Tsunade were assembling a search team, and I wanted to be on it.

I was already half way to the Hokage's tower when a familiar voice buzzed in my left ear; I looked around and saw Lee jogging next to me. "Hey! Neji, I haven't seen you training lately! As my eternal rival I expect to see you trying your hardest to be the best!" He gave me one of his flashy smiles and waited for my reply. My way to deal with "Lee" situations is simply to ignore him, he eventually just goes away.

I arrived outside the tower to find that Lee was still leaching onto me. "Lee, I'm doing something very important, can you please take your "youthfulness" elsewhere?!" I used one of his own phrases, hoping to connect to his puny brain exactly what I just said.

"Something important, Neji?" For a moment I thought he was going to go away. "Oooohh! I'd love to be involved, Gai-sensei would be very proud!" I smacked myself on the forehead and wiped it down my face before turning on my heals to run inside the building, in a bid to shake him off.

It didn't work. He was persistent in finding out exactly how important my mission was, and why he couldn't come. I stopped outside the Hokage's office momentarily to tell him he was being annoying, and then I knocked on the door- hoping that Tsunade-sama could do something about the puppy that looked like Lee that was following me around.

Kakashi opened the door, it looked as if he had been sweating furiously, because up-close his mask looked moist. He looked at me, then at Lee, and sighed. "Lee… what are you doing here…?" Lee looked up, hopeful at the mention of his name.

"Kakashi-sempai, I have been informed by Neji that an important mission is going to take place, and I wish to partake in it, sir!" Kakashi's face dropped. He stood up straight and put a hand to his face. He took a deep breath in before taking his hand away, I felt Lee's posture drop at Kakashi's negative response.

"Lee, I don't think you quite understand the situation. This "mission" that Neji told you about-" he shot me a quick but deadly glance, "-is top secret, and of a very high rank, it might even perhaps be an S-rank mission, but I am not entirely sure." I felt the blood drain from my body and I imagined it seeping through the floor- an _S-rank_ mission?! Who was this "Deidara" anyway? And the Akatsuki, Sasuke mentioned all of these things, but I didn't seem to understand.

"S-RANK?! Wow, Neji, I didn't realise it is of this importance. I'm sorry, Neji, but I'm afraid that your youthfulness far outmatches mine; I don't think it will be possible for me to join you on this mission. Thank you anyway, Kakashi-sempai!" And he was off, jogging down the hall. I was glad it was over. I was slightly embarrassed that it had come to it, though.

Kakashi pulled me into the room, and slammed the door shut, I looked around and I saw many elders of Konoha, plus Tsunade-sama and Jiraya-sempai at different points around the room, there were also some of the Konoha Jounin dotted around the room too: Kurenai, Asuma, Gai-sensei… wait, Gai-sensei?! I was pulled out of my shock when I was addressed by Tsunade. "Neji, good to see that you could make it, how is Sasuke; I heard that he was caught in an explosion?"

I stuttered slightly before replying, as Gai sent me one of his flash smiles. "A-ah… Sasuke will live, but, unfortunately, as the doctor said, he will need more medical attention to continue his life as normal."

"Good, at least he's alive." She sat up straight at the desk she was sitting at, and took a deep breath in. "As I have already told you, everyone, we have a serious situation at hand. I'm sure all of you have heard about the fall of the Uchiha clan, and the murder of the head of it, Ayame Uchiha. Her daughter, Kagerou Uchiha has been believed dead for the past seven years since the massacre, am I correct?" There were a few murmurs of agreement from the meeting attendees. "Well, what we have all believed for the past seven years has been a lie. No," she corrected herself, "-not a lie, we were all mislead… Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga is in fact still alive, and has been living amongst us disguised as a certain pink haired kunoichi dubbed as Sakura Haruno for the past seven years." There were gasps of shock around the room as they comprehended what they had just heard. Tsunade cleared her throat as the gasps turned into murmurs and then the whole room were discussing the matter, the conversations died down, and people once more turned their heads to Tsunade.

"But what has this got to do with our mission, Tsunade-sama?!" Gai-sensei piped up.

"This girl, believed dead was revealed to a certain amount of Genin and Chunin in a Tournament held at some training grounds last week. I assume you can all imagine why her existence was kept a secret…?" There was silence in the room before Jiraya-sempai took a step away from the wall he was standing against and cleared his throat.

"Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga is a unique kunoichi, you all know of both the Hyuga and Uchiha clan's Kekkai Genkai; Sasuke Uchiha and Neji Hyuga are two examples of them. Now, what would happen if a child was born with both Kekkai Genkai, because he or she was a part of both clans?" Murmurs were heard around the room once more.

"Thank you, Jiraya." Tsunade said, nodding to him as he leaned back against the wall once more. "Now do you see? Without proper protection, Kagerou would be sought after by every shinobi in the world if her existence continued, it was safer if she was just presumed dead, until she was strong enough to fend for herself, then it would be her own choice if she revealed herself, or kept quiet about the whole thing. And, at the moment, Kagerou is far from ready to reveal herself, she is still much weaker then certain criminals from certain organisations… like Orochimaru, the third of the sannin, he was here in Konoha yesterday, and attempted to kidnap Kagerou, but failed…" The room broke into discussion once more. Tsunade cleared her throat again, she was being awfully patient. "And of course, we cannot forget about the mighty Akatsuki, the most powerful criminal organisation known to Konoha. One member, Deidara, was here from last night, to early this morning. He also attempted to kidnap Kagerou, but, unfortunately this time succeeded." The room broke out into a riot, angry Jounin discussing the situation, elders bickering, but, this time Tsunade wasn't so patient. She held her head in her hands, and took a very deep breath in.

"Will you all be quiet?!" She bellowed as she rose menacingly from her chair. The entire room was silent once more. "This is no time to be quarrelling! We are in the midst of a crisis here, and all you can do is fight with each other!" She sighed. "Now, please… all of you calm down. I have brought you here to assemble a search team with Jiraya and Kakashi as joint leaders. You, Asuma, will be needed if any conflict occurs, I will need you to fight with your life if the team encounters the Akatsuki, and I assume you probably will. Kurenai, you have limited knowledge in medical ninjutsu, so I will need you to heal any wounds, and if anything happens to Kagerou, I want you to try your best to heal her. Gai, you will be the brute force of the team, I can't expect Asuma to fight the Akatsuki all by himself. And you, Neji." She turned to me. "I want you to be the eyes of the team; you're going to be used as surveillance, I want you to search the area you are travelling within and try and get leads to where the Akatsuki are, and where they took Kagerou. Also, if worst comes to worst, and you do encounter the Akatsuki, I also want you to fight."

The room was silent as she turned her body to face Jiraya. "Jiraya, you and Kakashi obviously know Kagerou the best out of everybody in this room. I want you to make the rescue. I need you or Kakashi to retrieve Kagerou while the others are preoccupied." She sighed and lowered her head before flipping it back up, with a stern, "is your mission clear?!"

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. Kakashi turned around and pushed me out of the door. Everyone else filed out, apart from the elders, the door slammed behind all of us. There was an awkward silence before Gai-sensei put a hand on my shoulder and flashed one of his smiles but this time he gave me an extra thumbs-up. "We can do this, Neji!" I half-smiled at his efforts before I turned around and started walking down the hall, where Hiashi appeared from around the corner. He looked up at me furiously. My heart skipped a beat, I wasn't afraid of that old man, but he had ultimate power over me.

I gulped as I took a step backwards and banged into Gai-sensei. I saw his hands fly up into that dreaded hand seal, and then I felt the pain in my head begin. It was as if someone was hitting me repeatedly over the head, and the instrument was jarring against my skull combined with a migraine that pierced through my temples like a senbon. I dropped to the floor, clutching the sides of my head in pain, stifling whimpers, but occasionally failing. The barrage stopped, and left me feeling very light headed and unable to see clearly. I attempted to stand up slowly, and I was aided by Gai-sensei.

I looked up and saw Hiashi on his hands and knees, sobbing into the floor. My anger towards him was washed away by the guilt that overcame me. It was my job to protect Kagerou: that's why I was born; I was born to serve, and to protect Kagerou from all dangers. That's the last time I'm leaving Kagerou in Sasuke's care, he has lost my trust, and will never re-gain it. I pushed Gai's hands off my shoulders, and made my way slowly towards him.

A headache slowly overcame me, it always happened after Hiashi used my curse seal. I tried to ignore it as I crouched next to him. He was in hysterics, I had never seen a grown man cry like that, I had, although, seen a grown man cry. Many times in fact, Gai-sensei was renowned for crying over Lee's triumphs. I put my hand on his shoulder and said in the kindest voice I could muster. "Hiashi-sama, please, get up."

His tears didn't stop streaming down his face, and I could see the great torment he was going through, I felt much the same way. We had only just discovered Kagerou's existence, and for her to be torn from us so quickly is cruel. He slowly made his way to his feet, just like I had. "Don't worry, Hiashi-sama, we're all going to get Kagerou back." I said as I gestured to the rest of the team. They all looked nonchalantly around the hall, not making eye contact with either of us. I don't think many of them had very high hopes about the mission.

I lead Hiashi to a chair outside the Hokage's office, and let him sit there while I signalled for the test of the team to get out of there. I made quick formalities with Hiashi before I left him there, crying into his hands. The only time I can remember him that sad was when Ayame-sama died with the rest of the Uchiha. I met Kakashi outside the building, waiting with the rest of them, ready to set off. "That was a very noble thing to do, Neji." Kakashi said to me, and then we were off.


	14. Chapter 14

07:29pm, June 24th – one day before the present time.

Akatsuki Hideout

Akatsuki/ Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga's P.O.V.

Far from the Village Hidden in the leaves, all the way in the Land of Grass, in a large cavern of sorts, riddled with passageways and rooms; stood a fidgety Pein. The source to his constant pacing and general fretting, is, that Deidara wasn't back from his mission yet. He was supposed to have returned over four hours ago. He sat down on a make-shift chair and sighed. He had secretly known that Deidara wasn't going to listen to his orders exactly, but, he didn't realise exactly how.

I ran my fingers through my hair as I leaned back on the back of the chair. I closed my eyes and frowned, thinking about Deidara. I opened them slowly when I heard slow, heavy footsteps entering the room. I saw through my peripheral vision that it was Kisame. He stepped over to the chair opposite me and sat down. I looked at him down my nose. He looked up at me, and stared into my eyes solemnly. "He'll be back, Pein. He hates to keep people waiting." I frowned, thinking about it. _'he hates to keep people waiting…'_

Our short conversation was broken by a crash that we both heard outside; we were in the outer-most rooms of the cavern, and there were a few passages leading directly out to the entrance hall, where Deidara usually parks his flying clay bird. Kisame was the first one out of the room. I hoped it was Deidara: an intruder at this time would be very inconvenient. Kisame stopped halfway down the passageway. I stepped past him, and saw Deidara: in a terrible state, carrying a petit, dark-haired girl… in her undergarments. I stopped and stared. _'well… this isn't exactly what I was expecting…' _Deidara fell to his knees, and wheezed a bit, before looking up at me, his visible eye portraying his current inner state to me perfectly: proud, rebellious, hurt… Kisame went over and took the girl from his arms. "So… this is Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga? She looks a lot like the person in the photograph…" I looked over his shoulder at her face, and got the picture out from my back pocket, and compared faces. _'She's definitely her daughter…'_ I looked up at Deidara, who was still wheezing, and asked: "does she possess Byakugan and Sharingan?"

He nodded as he slid slower towards the floor. Kisame looked around at me, "Where do you want her?" I looked around at her, and then my eyes slowly slid up to his; "take her to one of the cells, try and make her a comfortable as possible, we don't want her, upon her awake destroying the base." Kisame nodded and got up from his kneeling position. I looked over at Deidara who was still lying, defeated on the floor. I turned around as Kisame was about to walk off. "Would you help Deidara to his room; I think he may have difficulty doing so himself." Kisame nodded. He switched Kagerou to his left arm; she was so small in comparison to him, he could still queen carry her with one arm. He bent down, and scooped Deidara up into a fireman's lift, with a few complaints from him being voiced, but they died down as Kisame walked away.

***

Itachi was reading a highly uninteresting book whilst sitting on a makeshift chair. Kisame's whereabouts has drifted through his mind previously, but he hadn't thought much of it until Kisame's recognisable booming footsteps entered the room. His eyes slowly peered over the top of his book, and were fixated on what Kisame was carrying. Deidara was closest to him, and that was the first thing he saw, and didn't really think too much about it, but, his eyes wandered down lower to his other arm, where a girl with long, dark hair lay; presumably unconscious.

_"That girl… she… can't be!"_ My eyes narrowed as I stared at her facial features closer. She was the person that I knew existed, but knew not how to contact. It was a miracle how Deidara found her… how exactly _did_ he? My eyes bore into Kisame's back as he left the room. My investigations will have to wait until later, as I don't think I will be able to get close to her just yet. I lowered my eyes as I looked back down at my book.

***

My eyelids flickered open, and I stared into a dimly candle-lit room; which really seemed more like a cell. I looked around as I sat upright, and tried to ignore the throbbing headache I was experiencing. I was sitting on quite a cushioned bed; there was a desk with a candle on top of it on the other side of the room, and a table at my bedside. I tried to remember how I got here, then all the memories came flooding back: waking up next to Sasuke, the knock at the door, the explosions… and a man named Deidara. Tears came to my eyes as I thought about the situation I was in. I looked down at the bed sheets and watched my tears make wet stains on it. I was in the lair of the Akatsuki… and I had to find a way to escape.

I turned my head to the bedside table and saw that there was a draw in the centre of it. I swung my legs over the side of the bed, and pushed myself off, planning to get into a standing position. My knees buckled as a shooting pain entered my neck. I let out a chocked cry in pain as I clutched my neck, curled up in a ball on the cold, stone floor. I whimpered as the pain returned. It hurt so much, like a pounding in my neck squeezing all of my nervous system every so often. I cried out again, this time a piercing scream echoing in my surroundings. I couldn't stop the pain; I didn't know where it was coming from, or why I was hurting. I could only think about how much it hurt. My whole body contorted when another wave hit me, my exposed limbs brushing against the damp, bitter floor. My fingernails dug deep into the source of the pain, I felt like tearing it away.

I vaguely saw and heard the door open, and footsteps come in, but I couldn't see anything because of the tears that had accumulated in my eyes. I felt someone with a gentle touch push me onto my back, but I rejected their movements by curling myself back up into a ball on the ground. I cried out in pain again as the person pulled me towards them, and lifted me up onto the bed. I heard them mumble something, but I didn't understand what they said. I was so scared, what were they going to do to me?! I had no idea, it's not like I could do anything anyway; I was in such a vulnerable state. So, for the time being I warily accepted their comfort, knowing that if they had wanted to hurt me, they could have done so much earlier.

For time immeasurable by my current state of mind, I sat there, sobbing into that person's chest, not caring who they were or what they wanted. I constantly clawed at my neck, wishing for the pain to subside. When it eventually did, and my sobbing turned into soft whimpers as I looked up at whoever was embracing me. My heart stopped for what seemed like ages: the whole world froze around me; it was as if father time died right there on the spot. When I eventually snapped myself out of his captive gaze, it was Itachi who was looking coldly back down into my eyes.

My breathing became shallower as I started shuffling back, away from his glare. I would recognise his eyes anywhere, the ones that I had become all too familiar with when I was young. My behind shuffled a little too far back and I started toppling backwards off the edge of the bed. Itachi's eyes didn't waver once while he slipped his arms up the small of my back and pulled me forewords onto the bed once more. "What is hurting you?" he said, very calmly, leaving what had just happened completely behind. I stared at him, doe-eyed, not knowing what to say. He simply looked back at me. Eventually I shook my head slowly, and attempted to retreat away from him; I pushed at his chest, and attempted to escape his vice-grip. His arms were strong, but for some reason he wasn't squeezing me or hurting me, like I remember vaguely Deidara doing.

I looked at him like a rabbit caught in headlights. It had been seven years since I last saw him. I last saw him on that dreadful night. One thing I never understood was why, when he saw me, he didn't kill me like everybody else. I thought it was only Sasuke that had to be left. I slowly and hesitantly took my hand away from the curse mark on my neck, the reason for my recent trauma. His eyes darted to my neck. He tilted his head slightly to get a better angle. He moved his arm to brush the hair away from my neck to get a better look, but I flinched as his hand drew to near. I saw him look back at me, then he concentrated on my neck once more. I saw a flicker of emotion capture his features, but it was gone as fast as it came, and I didn't get a chance to read it.

He had finished inspecting my curse mark, and lifted me away from him, and put me in the middle of the bed. He then got up, and walked slowly out of the room, without saying one more word to me.

***

Time had passed, at least half an hour, and I heard footsteps outside the door. I turned to it and I watched as it opened to reveal Deidara, his breathing heavy, silhouetted by the light from the hallway. He marched up to me, and grabbed my arm and tore me from the bed to stand before him. "What did you do to me?!" He bellowed, his face far too close for comfort, breathing heavily into mine. I looked up at him blankly; I wasn't so sure what to do. He tore his shirt off, and pointed to his chest: "fix it!" Then did I realise that he was referring to the wound that I had inflicted onto him internally back in Konoha. I activated my Byakugan, trying to push the headache it gave me away, to peer into him.

There it was: I hadn't seen it earlier, but I had hit a chakra point that was connecting his oesophagus to the veins and capillaries that connected to his lungs. This was probably constricting the chakra flow, and blood flow with it, to his lungs, thus making his breathing heavier, because of him having to use more of an effort to keep diffusion and respiration occurring. I slowly drew my hand up to touch it: just to see what his reaction was. He winced, noticeably, as my fingers brushed his skin. He was obviously in pain.

I frowned. _'Why __**should**__ I help him?' _He was the one who brought me here. It's his fault that I did it to him anyway. I drew my hand back, and shook my head. "No." I plainly said.

"What do you mean, _no?!_" I frowned back up at him and crossed my arms. "You have to fix it… or…" his loss for words amused me, until another figure appeared at the doorway: a giant blue man. My eyes widened as I stared at him.

"Or we'll make your life _hell_." He said. Deidara grabbed my arm, and pushed it against his chest.

"Listen to the blue guy, you'll regret it if you don't." I looked back up at him, trying desperately to stop my lower lip from quivering: it constantly did that when I was on the verge of tears. _'Why am I __**here**__?'_ I thought as I opened my mouth.

"Will you hurt me… after I heal you?" I said, genuinely. Deidara's fierce feature's seemed to fade after I said it. There was a pause.

"No." He said finally, and I trusted him, he really did seem genuine. I healed him to the best of my ability, and he left without a word. Much like Itachi did. I sat down on the bed and sighed, my head in my hands. I slowly broke down into tears. _'I have to get out of here…'_ I thought as I flopped backwards, and let the headache wash over me.

***

I was still lying on my bed, shivering when someone else opened the door. It was Itachi once again. I looked at him without moving my head. I felt too defeated to even bother to move. I just wanted to go home, and see my friends again… Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei… I missed them so much already. "You're wanted for dinner." Was what he said. My heart skipped a beat as I misinterpreted the message.

"I'm not hungry." I said as I rolled over in bed, turning my back to him. I heard his footsteps get closer, and I felt his hand on my shoulder. It was surprisingly warm, or maybe I was just surprisingly cold.

He said, "Come." And pulled me up into a sitting position on the bed; I started shivering more violently as soon as my feet touched the floor: I wasn't wearing any shoes. Itachi obviously saw it, and took off his cloak.

I croaked out, "thanks." And continued to stare into space; he forcefully put a hand on my shoulder, and steered me out into the corridor. It was even chillier out there, and I decided to put my arms into the sleeves, and button it up a few times, to stop the draft from getting in. The sleeves were too long for me, they at least went an extra twenty centimetres from my fingers, and the cloak trailed along the ground behind me. I looked at the ground as I walked, but making a note of every turn we made: left and right, just in case it will come in handy later. Eventually, after passing through many corridors, and four rooms, we arrived in a slightly bigger room, with a large table in the centre of it. Itachi guided me over to my seat: in between an empty space, and himself. I hesitantly sat down on a rickety-looking chair, but deemed it safe, as the large blue man from earlier seemed to be sitting on it safely, and he had to be about seven foot tall, and three feet wide.

I looked around at everybody at the table, there seemed to be a few empty places; a few members were probably on missions. There was a red-haired, quite pretty man sitting directly opposite me, to his left there was Deidara, to Deidara's left there were three empty spaces; there was then me, then Itachi and a man with short, spiky orange hair with many-a-piercing adorning his face was sitting at the head of the table. As I looked at him, he put down his chopsticks and turned to me. "Hello, Miss Uchiha-Hyuga, I don't believe we have had the pleasure of crossing paths until now. You may call me, Pein, or "Leader" if you will." I felt sick at his over-the-top cheeriness: as if nothing had happened. He continued, "I see you have already met Itachi, as you two seem to be quite familiar-" _'no kidding…'_ I thought to myself. "And, of course, you know Deidara, the one who went to go retrieve you. I don't think you have met the other members of the Akatsuki, though. To my left, Deidara and Sasori respectively; Hidan and Kakuzu are away, but they should be back quite soon. Next to you there will be Zetsu, then yourself-" he gestured to my place. "Then Itachi and Kisame." He closed his mouth, and looked at me. I merely stared back at him, _'I could escape now… they're all eating, they'll have slow reactions… I could-'_ my train of thought was broken by someone waling in through the door behind me. I twisted my body around to see who had arrived, and I was met with the most bizarre sight I can safely say I have ever seen. I looked at a man, pacing towards me, with a giant venus-flytrap on his head… and he was half black and half white. The only thing that was stopping me from laughing or gaping, was the chilling stare he gave me.

He came and sat down next to me, his eyes not once wavering from my face. He inhaled deeply through his nose, his eyelids fluttering, and then smiled a toothy grin. Involuntarily, I shifted backwards at his movements. "You smell… nice" He leaned foreword, "I want to- _eat you_." My facial features betrayed my cool attitude- stark horror was all I could muster. The last to words that exited his mouth were spoken so differently to the first three, the contrast was almost as stunning as his complexion; white and black, calm and psycho. I moved considerably farther backwards, leaning heavily into Itachi's arm and side, all the while "Zetsu" was making his way closer and closer. I vaguely saw Itachi nonchalantly look over his shoulder to see what was happening, and turn back to his food. Zetsu was making weird rasping noises, and I squeezed Itachi's thigh as hard as I could as Zetsu was about as close as he could be, his breath tormenting my bangs.

Itachi calmly put down his chopsticks and said, "Zetsu, she's not to eat;" with closed eyes before picking up his chopsticks once again. Zetsu's eye line flashed up to look at Itachi before slowly retreating back to where he was supposed to be sitting. I didn't move. I was too scared, Itachi seemed to be the only one here that wasn't going to case me harm, _'yet.'_ I reminded myself. I, at the moment, had no obvious reason to fear Itachi, and so I clung to him, for the next ten minutes. I thought of where I was, and why I was there, I thought of Konoha again, and everybody I was missing. They probably weren't missing me, though… I sighed and stared at the floor. I didn't touch my food. It was probably poisoned anyway.

A few questions and mild small-talk drifted about the dinner table, it seemed quite awkward, and not something that occurred on a daily bases. After a while, the one with the red hair that looked so flawless, it was almost un-human, poked my rice-bowl with his chopstick. "The girl hasn't eaten her food." He said plainly, and everybody else stopped eating, and put their bowls down. Most of them were almost finished, and Kisame, the large blue guy had finished.

Deidara looked pouty when he said: "what a waste of food…" I looked up at him, and Sasori. Pein was the next to speak:

"Why aren't you eating? I would have thought that you would be hungry by now." As if on cue, my stomach growled. It ached along with my head. I just wanted to go home. Kisame spoke next.

"She probably thinks it's poisoned… even though that would help no one." Most everybody agreed or nodded their heads.

"Do you seriously think, that I would go against orders, risk my life, and get hurt… just to take you back here to kill you?" Deidara said, in disbelief. I nodded. I didn't feel like speaking, not like I had the energy to anyway.

"We'll show you it's not poisoned." Pein said as he reached out his arm, and grabbed a chopstick-full of rice and sauce and ate it. Kisame, Deidara, Zetsu… and even _Itachi_ did the same. My jaw dropped as I saw them all munching away on my food. Deidara said, in between mouthfuls, "so… I think we've proved to you that it's not poisoned… how about you try some?" I hesitantly reached for the chopsticks when I saw something sparkling around them. I looked closer as I picked them up: it was a ring. No ordinary ring, though, a ring of the Akatsuki, the ring named bya. I looked down at its brilliant white pigment, then up at Pein, and Itachi. Pein smiled. Not a kind, happy smile that makes you also want to smile, but a sinister, malevolent smile that makes your insides squirm because you feel so terrified.

"It's yours." Pein said as he nodded towards the ring.

"It goes on your right middle finger," Itachi said as he slipped it off the chopsticks and slipped it onto my finger gracefully. "Like this." I looked down at it: _'they really are serious… they want me to join them… of course I can't… I still need to get out of here.' _I thought to myself as I finished the last morsel of whatever was left of my dinner and sat there, slouched, hugging myself with the long, floppy sleeves of Itachi's cloak… it probably looked like a straight jacket.

Some were leaning back in their chairs, others foreword, leaning their elbows on the table; obviously full and drowsy after their meal. _'This is my chance!'_ I thought, eyeing everybody from the corners of my vision.


	15. Chapter 15

09:14pm, June 24th – one day before the present time.

Akatsuki Hideout

Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga's P.O.V.

My movements were so unpredicted and fast, I even surprised myself. I jumped up, flipping the table over with my leg, and turned around on a sprint: I was on the other side of the room in no time. I wasn't sure where I was going, but I was going somewhere. I ran into a corridor. I looked down at the cloak, it was starting to get in the way, I started to un-button it when I ran, face first into something hard.

I had bounced off it, to a certain extent, and as I stepped backwards I looked up… and up, and up. I had bumped into a person: tall, grey hair slicked back, half naked… I didn't have to think twice, I bolted in the opposite direction. I recognised the cloak he was wearing, and I sensed his accomplice behind him. "…the hell?!" I heard him say as I sprinted off down the hallway. I saw Kisame coming up in the distance ahead, and I stopped.

Kisame: a seven foot tall shark-man in front of me, Hidan and Kakuzu: two men of unknown ability behind me. What else was I to do but run into a convenient adjoining hallway to the left? I ran with what little energy I had down the other passage way, the thundering footsteps behind me the only thing keeping me going. It seemed as if the whole of the Akatsuki were on my tail. But they were too clever; I assumed there would be others hiding in hallways at some point; that is why I activated my Byakugan, much to my head's disdain. I coped with the headache, although it hindered my agility, The Akatsuki seemed to catch up slightly at every turn I made.

I counted the turns I mad in the winding, almost maze-like passageways: left, left, right, sharp left, right, right, right… etcetera. I had to record them, or I would probably be lost in this place forever. I made the mistake of looking over my shoulder, to see Kisame only two metres behind. He made a lunge, but I ducked and he flew straight over me; which was bad, as, now he was in front of me. It took three seconds approximately for the others to catch up, and Kisame was ready in a position in front of me. The rest of the Akatsuki were almost at a critical range, when I jumped using the force of chakra, and landed on the wall, it was easy, then to continue running, gathering momentum, and then jumping from the wall to behind Kisame so I could continue my escape. I heard one of them curse as I ran through a room and into another corridor. I had noticed that only Deidara, Kisame, Hidan and Kakuzu were pursuing me, the rest were somewhere else.

I swiftly turned another corner, and reached another room. This time, there was no escape. It was a dead end, I switched my Kekkai Genkai to Sharingan, being careful not to make the two cross paths like last time, and turned around, the cloak billowing out behind me. "We have you…" Deidara said, slightly out of breath. The one with the grey hair, who I assumed was Hidan, slowly paced up to me. I stared at him right in the face, showing no fear; making sure the only thing they saw in me was defiance. I had to make it this way, I had to be strong. "Who are you…?" He said as he took a step closer, pressing himself against me, and into the wall. He was crushing me, but I didn't care, I had to stay strong, and show no emotion. He was holding a two-pronged scythe, I glanced at it, and decided to make this quick before he had a chance to use it.

As inconspicuously as I possibly could, I tried making one-handed hand signs whilst I pushed Hidan away slowly, saying: "My name is Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga… and I'm out of here." I pulled my fingers up to my face as I blew through a ring I had made with them "Great Fireball Jutsu!" I bellowed, as an incredibly large fireball appeared, careering dangerously towards the rest of the Akatsuki. I felt something wiz through the air past me as I ran foreword; as I was running I looked back and ducked just in time to see a scythe flying through the air towards me: it was on a chain… I hadn't noticed earlier.

I looked up, and saw Hidan catching the scythe in the air, the rest of the Akatsuki out of sight. "Shoot!" I said in annoyance. I needed to get past him, and the rest of the Akatsuki that were probably waiting outside. I jumped once again, releasing small bursts of chakra from my feet to propel myself higher. I remembered the chidori technique that Sasuke and Kakashi use, but, that is really only for close range attacks, and I didn't want to get too close to Hidan. I was also taken back to when I was fighting the sound ninja in the Chunin Exams last year, when he threw those senbon at me, believing that I was a clone. That gave me an idea… what if I combined both the attack's pros: chidori's sheer deadliness with a senbon's preciseness. As I glided through the air, I formed the needed hand signs for a chidori attack… but moulded it into small, pin-pricks. With my Sharingan, I was able to pin-point Hidan's vital points, and I directed the Chidori senbon there.

Hidan watched them coming, and I saw them silently slide into his flesh. He smirked as the blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. I landed on the wall above the doorway, and stayed there with my chakra. He slowly turned around, and smirked at me. He knew they were waiting for me. They didn't know I was waiting for them. He started childishly giggling as I jumped down from above the door. One thing that puzzled me was Hidan's inability to get hurt, or, at least to show pain or injury. I span around as I sensed movement behind the door frame. The only way for me to get out is to run straight into their trap, like they intend. And, so I did.

I started off through the door, but, obviously my advance was hindered by Kisame pouncing on me. I had seen it coming, and as soon as his hand came in contact with my arm, I was already a log. I had made the hand signs for a substitution jutsu long before I stepped outside, and had repressed it until the last minute. I was quite proud of my genius as I ran across the ceiling, briskly turning around a corner, back the way I came, to the exit of this damn maze. I had fooled the Akatsuki, and was on my way, so, I decided to drop down from the ceiling and run on the ground, as the blood rushing to my head was making my headache agonisingly painful.

I smirked as I listened to the muffled cries and shouts of the shinobi I had left behind, I listened to their cussing fade away into the hallowed halls. I ran for two minutes, I had been lost for a short while, as all the corridors looked exactly the same, but found my way back, because I had recognised one of the rooms as one that Itachi and I had walked through on the way to dinner that evening. I ran for another ten seconds, but had to hide in a passageway, because I saw Pein run straight past, mumbling under his breath.

After I was sure that the hallway was all clear, I carried on my journey _'I'm almost out; I can smell the fresh air already!'_ I thought as I turned another corner. Only to slow down, and eventually grind to a halt; Itachi was there, standing in front of the exit. I stood there, quivering. I knew what he was capable of. I remember the horror stories I had overheard back when I was a child. I just made sure to avoid direct eye contact. "Please get out of my way." I said, holding back tears of dread, it hadn't worked, as my voice quivered. He looked up at me, form the ground he was studying.

"No." He was a man of few words. My whole body was shaking by then, I didn't know what to do. I had to stand up to him, but how?

"Please." I was brought up to respect my elders, and this is one of the few situations when I abide that rule. Politeness was the way foreword, without loosing your life.

I could have sworn he said something else, but I didn't hear. I was too fixated on him walking slowly towards me, keeping an almost deliberate rhythm. "You can't leave… you're not ready." He said, dragging out the words like he was writing me a letter. He was barely a metre away, and I still didn't move. I looked up, into his eyes. And that was the first mistake of the day.

His eyes were mesmerising, they held me captive in their glare. I almost managed to break free from their clutches when I spoke; "what… do you mean?" Alas, it was too late; he had already begun the genjutsu that traumatised so many. I was forced to relieve all those tormenting horrors I had seen too many times already, over and over for my time there; stuck in that place beyond the mirror, where everything was twisted inside his mind. I saw my mother die varied deaths, Sasuke, as a child murdered and tortured before my eyes, but I was bound by fear itself, there was no way I could have helped them. I screamed as I was tormented for hours on end by the endless pitfall that I had tripped into, glinting kunai whispering past me, dangerously close. I never reached the bottom, I fell and fell and fell, watching through windows in the walls of the shaft the people most close to me being hurt, tortured or killed. I screamed, till my throat was sore and I was sure I had no breath left: I saw my mother, she reached out to help me, but then she transformed into that snake-bastard Orochimaru. Nothing made sense anymore… yet it seemed so real.

At long last, my feet crashed into something steady, and I collapsed onto the ground. I rolled onto my back, but my whole body jolted as something smooth tickled the back of my thigh. I sprang up and span around, there, before me was the most monstrous serpent being, twenty times my height, and one hundred times my length. I shuddered as I craned my neck to see the top of it. It was staring right back at me.

I was in the process of turning to flee, but its colossal tail wrapped itself around me, squeezing me tight, the pain was excruciating as it dragged me back towards its head. I was suspended above the giant snake's mouth, with its tail still wrapped tightly around my middle. Next, the queerest thing occurred; I looked down to the ground, and I saw what seemed to be like a movie playing out, like at the cinema. It was of Sasuke and I, running around in my garden, he was chasing butterflies. I didn't even remember when that happened. But, what was even stranger is that it seemed as if the film was being recorded through someone else's eyes: everything was happening at a certain view point, through different things. For instance, once it was almost as if you were looking through bars, another time it was as if you were looking through a hedge… how did Itachi even know about this? Everything that happened in the film was definitely not false… but, how…?

Just then I had an epiphany, they were Itachi's memories… that would explain how he knew, he always seemed to be watching us; sometimes it scared me. I suddenly slipped slightly, I hadn't realised that the snake-beast had been loosening its grip on me. I cried out as I slipped down further. I grappled desperately around to try and find something I could hold on to. Its scales were too slippery, I slipped some more, with every slip a scream could be heard, and with every scream, someone emerged from the shadows. I looked around, at every opportunity possible, and I saw people from my past: Sasuke, his parents, Itachi, my mother and father, Inabi, Elder… so many people that I remember and love kept on appearing from the darkness, and standing there, watching. I called out to them, for them to help me, but, it was as if they couldn't hear. I reached out to Sasuke, my parents; they all gave me a blank stare.

Tears ran down my face as I struggled to keep myself from slipping down into the beast's mouth. I heard a screech, and as I looked up and saw a lone crow fly in from the shadows, making a terrible noise. I looked closer at it, still gripping the scales as hard I could; the crow had red eyes. I gasped as it landed by me, on the snake's scaly back. It cocked its head at my rasped breathing. "You need to be strong." It said. I recognised its voice as Itachi's… he had appeared to me as a crow… and gave me advice. He was right though, I needed to be strong- that was the only way to escape this… I needed to break the genjutsu. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. _'None of this is real… it's all in my head… I'm imagining it… there really isn't a snake, none of this is real. Sasuke is still alive in Konoha; my father is too, none of this is real. It's all a dream, I can't really feel any pain… none of this is real, none of this is real- none of this is __**real**__!'_ I took a deep breath in as I let go of the snake's tail and fell into its awaiting mouth.

I fell and fell and fell; until I surfaced back, in the Akatsuki hideout, where I gasped for air, and dropped to my knees. Itachi was still in front of me, and looked down at where I was on the ground. It took some time for me to regain my composure, and I slowly tried to get up. I fell thrice before I managed to rise to my normal height. "I…" I was panting furiously, "Want… to…" My eyes closed involuntarily, "go… _home_." I looked up at him, but, he wasn't wearing his usual mask of emotionless… he, was actually expressing what seemed to be compassion. He looked down at me, and lifted my chin up.

"Your home is not here… you are ready. You are strong, Kagerou-hime." My lower lip quivered as he looked at me, I carefully lifted my arms to take off his cloak I then handed it to him.

"Thank you." He said, and I almost saw a ghost of a smile on his lips. "I will count to ten, if you are not gone by then, I will take you back to the Akatsuki." My eyes widened as he closed his, and began counting. "One…" I gasped, and stepped backwards. "Two… three…"

I didn't need to think twice, I gathered up my dwindling strength and ran past him, only looking back once, to check he wasn't pursuing me. I gasped for air as I dodged through the twigs and branches as I entered a forest; I had no idea where I was going, but I had to get away from there. I heard faint cries of anger, presumably from the other Akatsuki members, as I continued. I closed my eyes as tears blinded my sight. I was so happy to be out, I couldn't believe I escaped.

I saw a faint light in the distance; I wasn't quite as sure as to what it was, until I came up close. I was in a small forest clearing; the place seemed so familiar to me, almost as if I had been here before… in a dream, or something… I recognised the surroundings, every leaf on every tree. I sat down in the centre of it, bathing myself in the moonlight. I decided to use the very last of my chakra to perform a transformation jutsu; I didn't have enough energy to do my usual illusion. I combed my fingers through my now pink hair as I rolled onto my side.

It was cold. I was shivering. I didn't know where I was; but I felt safe, so safe that I closed my eyes, wrapped my arms around myself, as I fell into a deep sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

11:26am, June 25th – the present day.

A Forest clearing ½ of a mile away from the Akatsuki Hideout, The Land of Grass.

Rescue Party/ Kagerou Uchiha-Hyuga's P.O.V.

I was running through the trees, high above the ground. Pinpricks of sunlight danced through the canopy overhead- it reminded me of Konoha. A soft breeze whistled past my ears. I would usually find the serenity of the Land of Grass's surroundings calming; but today I was on a mission. I had to find Kagerou.

The search party had been running non-stop, asking various passers-by if they had seen anything suspicious. So far: nothing. Not one clue, people had spoken about a bird, but, what would we need with birds? What kind-of information was that? Great load of help they were.

I had joined the search party later; I hadn't been invited to the meeting. 'tch… how could they have missed me out? The world's greatest ninja! I'll be Hokage one day… they'll see.

I turned around to see most of the search party to be quite far behind me… ok, very far behind me. My mouth turned down into a snarl. They had lost hope. I waited until they caught up with me before I said: "what do you think you are all doing? You haven't lost hope have you?" I waited for a reply. I looked around at ero-sennin… he gave me a stern look. His eyes were deep-set and as I looked around at everybody I realised that everybody looked weary. Nobody said anything. My frown deepened. "So that is what you are going to do… just give up hope? How can you be like this with a fellow shinobi, a friend?" I turned on my heels and sped off, not bothering to wait for the non-existent reply.

I remembered the solemn, blank looks on their faces, as I listened to their hurried footsteps behind me. I couldn't believe even Neji had lost all hope in this mission. His own flesh and blood… I couldn't understand how they couldn't be willing to go on… It completely escaped me. Soon, I felt a presence right next to me. It was Neji.

"Naruto… we haven't lost hope… the future just seems a bit… dim." He sighed as he looked ahead. "We've been looking non-stop, we haven't rested once. I think the team's bad spirits are because of the lack of rest; of course we want to find Kagerou." His face softened at her mention.

I hoped she was alright. I had been so preoccupied with the prospect of finding her; I hadn't stopped to think what position she might be in. My face contorted as I clenched my fists. "Those… Akatsuki bastards… how could they do this?" I looked back up at the horizon. "Don't they realise they're ruining people's lives?" I stopped dead in my tracks. "AUGHHH!" I let my burning ferocity escape be felling a nearby tree.

I stood there, with a blank face, staring at the ground below. I felt a tear slide down my cheek. I immediately wiped it away. I couldn't let the others see. I turned to face them. "Maybe we should rest…" I said quietly. The rest of the team nodded, and Kakashi-sensei put a hand on my shoulder.

"We're doing the best we can." He said, almost lovingly. I nodded as we all descended to the forest floor. We sat there in silence for a while, taking in our surroundings.

I had been sitting there for a while, I was dozing slightly- it was a warm, perfect day. I would have loved to spend today down by the river with Sasuke and Naruto. I felt a pang in my heart. They must be looking for me. I sat up, brushed my now once again pink bangs from my eyes. The sun tickled my eyelashes as I looked up through the tree branches- the light stabbed menacingly at my vision. It was about midday. I could tell from the position of the sun, I also found out that I was facing east, and Konoha was in a westerly direction. I dusted myself off and shot off into the trees.

After a short while I had to cease my tree jumping and settle for a brisk walk along the woodland floor. The Land of Grass didn't seem very grassy… this terrain was much more like Konoha. '_That must mean I'm not too far away from the border!' _My pace quickened slightly even though every step I took jarred excruciating pain through my body. The heat of the day was beginning to seep into my body, slowing my thoughts down and making my eyelids heavy. I needed to get to Konoha, I needed to see Sasuke…

I was breathing heavily, my steps laboured and slow again, each one I took seemed to drain me of any energy. I had to keep on going, no rest, if I rest… who knows what will happen? I soon came to a small, glittering brook. I stopped to wet my face and drink. I was parched and ravenous- but there was no food. I continued onwards.

I couldn't help but let out small cries for every few steps I took, I leant against a tree trunk. I could go not further. My heart tore itself from me, I felt so empty, to know that you were going to die and never see your one true love again… never see your friends. It is overwhelming. I let myself slide down the trunk and crumple into a heap on the floor. I closed my eyes… _'So this is the end…?'_ All the noises of the forest were muted, everything felt so distant and unreal. The only thing real was the pain I was feeling, in my heart, and all over my body from the constant throbbing my burns felt, the bruises that decorated my once peachy, now pale skin.

We were all sitting together in a circular form; it was mocking us, forcing us all to make eye contact with each other and communicate. It was awful. The silence was oppressing and dampening the already sodden mood. There was suddenly a change in the air turbulence that was created by everyone's steady breathing. I looked over- Neji had just shot up off the ground as quick as a rabbit that's sensed a hunter. He was poised… almost in anticipation. Something was wrong. I got up too and caught his eye. He looked at me.

"What's wrong, Neji?" I said urgently. If it was an ambush, I was ready. I had so much pent up anger I needed to release. I felt like I was going to explode, damn it!

"Naruto … I see… someone… at nine o'clock at around 100m away. I didn't notice them before- they were moving so slowly." His voice was strained- as if he was keeping something back. All eyes were on him.

I waited for him to carry on. He looked at the ground. "I-I think I recognise their chakra patterns… I think it's-" I didn't even need to wait for him to finish. A lead was a lead I didn't care what I was bound to be running into, I was running anyway. I heard shouts from the other nin as I sped through the trees, they were slowly beginning to follow me. Far behind, never the less.

_'100m… 9 o' clock…' _that's all I could think. _'100m… 9 o' clock… 100m… 9 o' clock… 100m… 9 o' clock…' _I jumped through one branch full of leaves- they exploded into a firework pattern as I fell to the inviting ground. I landed.

As I looked up, I saw her- it couldn't have been anyone else. The pink hair was a dead giveaway. My heart filled with inexplicable joy as my head raced with questions. I bolted to her, she seemed to be sleeping; I couldn't believe we did it! We found her! Finally this was all over, we could all go home, she would live peacefully at the Hyuuga complex, we'd train together and go to Ichiraku Ramen afterwards, it would be just like team 7 all over again!

As I threw myself to her side I couldn't help but let the joyful tears roll down my cheeks. I gently nudged her arm. She didn't move. My blood froze. I brushed the hair away from her face frantically searching it for signs of life. The others had arrived behind me- there was an air of tension. I spun around; the joyous tears were now uncontrollable, stricken with worry. I looked straight at Kakashi-sensei, he had an unreadable expression. He slowly walked foreword- almost not wanting to know.

"She's alive." Neji whispered. I turned to look at him. I didn't know what to think. "I can feel tiny pulses from her chakra spiking. She's not dead." There was a pause when the mood lifted, then he uttered a word under his breath, hoping that no one would hear. "_yet_." I was furious, but, for the first time in my life I controlled my anger, I needed to know if Kagarou would be ok.

I turned on my heels to find Kakashi was already at work examining her, with Kurenai at his side. "It's no use… I can't check her body with this transformation jutsu." Kuranai said, almost apologetically. Kakashi closed his eye and sighed. He lifted the hand that wasn't supporting Kagarou's limp frame and put it on her upper arm. He expelled some chakra and dispelled the jutsu.

I was shocked to see Kagarou again, she was in almost a bad condition as when she was in hospital, her whole body was one large bruise, there were minor cuts and scratches all over her body, and major ones too, there was dirt on her face and the wrappings that she was wearing were filthy, once white were now a yellowish beige with scorch marks all over them. I was horrified to think of what happened to her.

I was at her side at once, I gently caressed her innocent face- it was rough with dried tears and blood. I could barely tell she was breathing. She seemed to respond to my touch, her eyelids danced, then slowly and surely they opened. I was lost in them; they were like to holes, dragging me towards her awaiting face. I had a feeling that I was falling down and down and down in a bottomless pit. Surprisingly the feeling wasn't at all unpleasant... it was more relaxing.

"Naruto…kun?" I smiled despite myself. It had been a question- I don't think that she could see me clearly. I moved to block the beam of light hitting her face. Her eyes widened slightly as her pupils dilated even more. "Na-Naruto-kun!" She said breathlessly as she attempted to prop herself up on Kakashi-sensei. Her breathing was haggard but she was very much alive, my heart filled with joy and I couldn't help but pounce into a hug.

"Kagerou-chan! I'm so glad you're alive!" All the other jounin and chuunin started chuckling, and soon enough their chuckles erupted into laughter. I wasn't sure what they were laughing about, but I joined in when Kagerou did.

Once we had all recovered Kagerou stood with the help of Kakashi. She turned around and took one step away from him, but suddenly his arms shot out and pulled her back into his chest. She looked a bit surprised at first but she smiled soon and turned to return it. I looked around and everyone was smiling, even Neji! There seemed to be a certain amount of admiration in everyone's eyes, and some respect shone through too. I felt the happiest I had in years.

"So, Kagerou-chan, aren't you happy to see your uncle Jiraiya?" He said it with open arms; unshed tears in his eyes. Kagerou turned around and beamed at him; she staggered towards him and fell into his open arms, I smiled to myself as they shared a tender moment. _'I never really knew Ero-sennin had anything to do with Sakura… I mean Kagerou.' _My thoughts were interrupted by Jiraiya's wavering voice. "You get more and more beautiful every time we meet." He held her away from him to get a better look. "You're the spitting image of your mother." Kagerou smiled back at him and giggled.

"I hope not in this state!" she said as she raised her hand to her mouth to hide her increasing frequency of giggles. Jiraiya deadpanned. I couldn't stop the laughter coming from my mouth. I looked around at everyone, studying each of their faces, there were so many mixed emotions it was hard to pin them all down. I turned my head to look past Asuma and my stomach lunged as I saw Gai-sensei. I shivered. He was laughing too, his face dusted with a drunken blush… he was still wearing his green spandex.

"I don't think we should stay stationary for so long." Neji broke the joyous mood, even though he was right I still felt a bit irritated. The laughing stopped at once, the air filled with an icy silence. "We are not aware of the Akatsuki's current whereabouts; they could be looking for Kagerou-hime now, as well as other missing nin. We should get back to the safety of Konoha immediately before anything happens." We all nodded.

"Kagerou-san… if you don't mind me asking, but, how did you manage to get away from the Akatsuki; they are the most powerful criminal organisation known to us… it was the Akatsuki that kidnapped you in the first place, wasn't it?" Asuma's voice rang out above the forest noises. Kagerou looked at him deeply.

"That story is for another time." She smiled sweetly. "The tale is too long for now, when we get back would be a better time."

"Was it the Akatsuki, though?" I blurted out. She nodded.

"Yes." I was so confused, I knew I had to wait until we got back, but, it was so tempting. Kakashi picked Kagerou up and carried her through the trees as we set off back home. I would glance at her from time to time. She soon fell asleep, exhausted. I would gaze at her sleeping face throughout the journey and wonder how she got away… I imagined impossible scenarios and play them out in my head. Some of them scared me. I needed to know what happened, the want for knowledge was burning inside me.

We had to stop and rest often, the travelling was beginning to wear Kagerou out even more, if that was even possible. It was beginning to get dark when we stopped to rest for the third time, and Kagerou was shivering so violently we all began to worry. She looked up at me, perched on a nearby tree stump, her teeth chattering. She looked so vulnerable; I just wanted us to be back in Konoha already so she could be safe. I took my jacket off and wrapped it around her as I moved her so I could share my body heat with her. The frozen air nipped at me but I hardly felt it. Kagerou's shivers didn't stop for another half an hour. We sat there together listening to the other adults talk. Neji sat there on the other side of the group eyeing us both up. His persona had really changes since Kagerou's capture, colder, more cynical. Every time we stopped for rest, Kagerou's small voice would come out as a whisper as she asked me how Sasuke was and if he was alright. I tried my best to answer her questions without making her worry, but I could see it in her eyes that she was terrified for him.

Soon the adults came to the conclusion that it would be best to send Asuma ahead to send message to Tsunade that we found Kagerou. He left immediately, he said it would only take him half an hour to get there, tops, and told Kagerou not to worry about Sasuke, he'd be there waiting for her. She smiled in reply, but it was forced, I could tell.

She slept for a while, peaceful in my arms, before I had to wake her so we could set off again. She looked up at me dreamily and it made my heart wrench and the blood rise wanton in my cheeks. She smiled and that made it even worse, I had to smile and look away quickly before I lost control of myself.

It took us another two hours to get back to the gates of Konoha; we were greeted by Izumo and Kotetsu who were on guard duty again. Kakashi told us all to report straight to Tsunade, and that we would find her in her office before taking Kagerou in his arms and running in the direction of the infirmary. We all set of to the Hokage's tower.

Upon arrival we found that inside it was very much alive, even at such an early hour of three in the morning. Apparently there was something serious going on because when I saw Tsunade she acknowledged my presence but waved us all away. I was shocked, what could be more important then our mission report at this time? Maybe it was the fact that Asuma came earlier that made her uninterested, but he hadn't given a formal report because the mission hadn't ended yet. I was confused… but it was no use arguing with Tsunade, especially when she was in a mood like this.

So I decided to visit Kagerou and Sasuke at the infirmary.

My eyes opened as I felt a soft cushioned surface rise up beneath me, my eyelids fluttered open as I felt the surface I was laying on shift with weight. My eyes opened to see immediately the all too familiar sterile ceiling of the Konoha infirmary. The lights were off and the room seemed a pasty mid grey. I sat up slowly, careful not to hurt myself too much to see the origin of the weight at the end of my bed. Kakashi-sensei was looking solemnly back at me.

"Déjà-vu, isn't it?" I shuddered at the echo of Orochimaru's words earlier on in the week, but nodded weakly anyway. He continued, wanting to fill the silence; "is there anything you would like me to ask the nurse for you?" My heart skipped a beat as I thought of Sasuke.

"Can you ask her if I can go and see Sasuke?" He looked at me for a while before sighing.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt…" The smile that found its way to my face was so big it began to hurt. He smiled back as he helped me off the bed. I gingerly stepped down and put most of my weight onto Kakashi-sensei as I stepped down the corridor to reception with him. We arrived there to find an eerie silence in our wake. "It was like this when we got in, but I couldn't wait for the receptionist with you like that, so I went in anyway… I was going to come back and register you when you were resting." It seemed wrong, and I think Kakashi thought so too as he guided me to a chair and went behind the desk. His eye visibly widened before he stooped down below the desk so I couldn't see him anymore.

Suddenly anxious I said, "What is it? What's wrong Kakashi-sensei?" He got back up and beckoned me over. I stood to my feet, wobbled a bit but hurried as fast as I could anyway. I grabbed onto him to steady myself, and good thing I did because when I got there and peered round the desk what I saw made me feel light-headed. A woman, probably the receptionist was sprawled on the ground, by her position it looked as if she had been kicked under the desk; her hair was covering her face but I could see her horrific frozen expression- of terror and excruciating pain. There was a trail of coagulated blood coming from the corner of her mouth; she was lying in a pool of her own blood. I looked at her once pristine white uniform to see that the majority of it was now a reddish-brown. The smell of the blood wafted menacingly under my nostrils. I started to feel sick.

"Somebody slashed her jugular vein. It would cause instant death, painful too. Who would do this?" He looked down at me and immediately saw that I was feeling faint and steered me away from the body. I began to worry about Sasuke- _'was he ok? Did the person kill him too?'_ My shivers returned as I jumped to more and more conclusions. I looked Kakashi directly in the eye; we were both thinking the same thing. I jogged softly back to the front of the desk where the signing in sheet was, I searched down it _'there!'_ "… Room 43! He's in room 43!" I turned and Kakashi swept me off my feet into a queen's carry.

"It might be dangerous; we've got to stick together." I nodded. He stopped at room 41. He was in the next room along, he had to be! Kakashi-sensei slowly approached the door and turned the handle and then he was gone, he was inside so fast I didn't even see him move. He was in there only for a little while but it seemed like forever. My heart was bursting through my chest; I couldn't help myself but run in there after him.

I staggered through the door to see Kakashi standing like a beautiful gargoyle at the window. The room was completely void of any life, Sasuke wasn't there. I looked around the whole room; there wasn't anybody in there but Kakashi and me. I went over to the bed; the sheets were ruffled, as if someone got out of them in a hurry. I looked at the bedside table, there was a watery liquid spilt over it. At first I thought it was blood until I looked closer and saw that it was just water, I followed the trail of water to the ground next to the table. There was a smashed vase on the floor with the flowers in a neat heap amongst the shrapnel. There was a small paper tag attached to one of the white roses which read: "Dear Sasuke, I hope you get better soon so we can go out to celebrate! Love, Ino x" My cheeks burned with rage, _'how dare that little pig give Sasuke flowers when I'm not around!'_ A hot wet tear trickled down my face _'where is he…? Sasuke…'_.

I was startled by Kakashi putting a hand onto my shoulder. "He's not here. Whoever took him has been and gone a long time ago. I'm sorry, Kagerou." The emotions I felt were indescribable, never in my whole life had I felt like this before. It was then that I realised that Sasuke was my soul mate, and to loose a soul mate is like to loose a part of yourself. My eyes glazed over, it seemed as if everything had a filter over it so it looked as if I was seeing through frosted glass. I felt the tears well into my eyes, but they never escaped. _'I will not cry, no. I will stay strong; my Sasuke would want me to stay strong…'_ I turned to face the door and stepped away from Kakashi, shrugging his steady hand off. Every step I took sent a shooting pain right up that left a searing pain in my neck. On the curse mark side. I struggled to keep my consciousness above the water that seemed to be flooding my throbbing mind. I staggered from time to time as I felt myself slowly loosing my balance in a foreword direction, I kept fighting onwards. The hallway was darkened at the early hour, however, dawn was approaching and the corridor was filled with an eerie light escaping from the open doorways and the front entrance of the hospital.

I was soon at reception once more, I heard light footfall outside, I wasn't sure who it was but I had no sense of danger. I simply looked up to meet them. Naruto rushed in, his face dusted with a red blush from running. "Na-Naruto-kun." I said wearily. He hurried to my side; I grabbed a fistful of his shirt and threw myself into his chest. I breathed deeply, absorbing every detail about his texture and scent. I felt drowsy before I surfaced to look at him, deep into his cerulean eyes that told me everything about what he was thinking, anything I needed to know. Naruto had always been the easiest person to read. His eyes softened and I felt his embrace melt into me, he knew something had happened, we were communicating through our withheld gaze.

"What's wrong, Kagerou-chan?" He said as softly as he could muster. My eyes flicked down to his collarbone for a second, but soon they were re-united with his once more, this time with an undertone of urgency to them. His eyes widedned slightly, then with haste he said "what happened?"

I closed my eyes, "Sasuke-kun is gone…" I felt his embrace tense, crushing me softly into his hard torso.

"What?" His eyes were blazing, I felt a pang of guilt- maybe I should have waited before I told him. His hold on me increased slightly, it was becoming restrictive now. I looked into his eyes again; anger was building in them dangerously high.

"A-ah, Naruto-kun!" He was hurting me now; I felt the pressure on my ribcage, the kind that a toothpick would feel the millisecond before it snaps. I jerked my face up to look into his eyes again; they were glazed over with burning rage. My blood ran cold, he had lost control. I could smell a pungent, sharp odour expelling from him, it smelled like raw power, like something I had only ever seen in him before once. "Naruto!" My breath was heaving. "Naruto! Stop it, Naruto-kun!" he couldn't hear it; I wasn't getting through to him at all. "Naruto! You're hurting me!" A flicker of remorse dashed over his eyes, but he didn't stop, it was gone as fast as it arrived. I heard Kakashi's boots make tapping sounds on the linoleum floor, in an effort to stop him. It was too late. I felt the red aura of the demon chakra engulf us both. It seared over my pale, exposed, skin. My face was scorched by it, and he still didn't let go. "Naruto! Naruto! You have to listen to me!" I pleaded with him. His eyes were blank. They were not Naruto's eyes anymore, but the eyes of the devil, the demon inside him. They spewed pure evil into my mind and made me want to tear away from him and his fiery look. The restraint was unbearable, I felt like I was going to black out. _**'No! Kagerou! Stay awake! You mustn't let Naruto loose like this!'**_ My inner told me sternly, I snapped back into reality, I knew I had to get him back down to earth. I could vaguely hear Kakashi shouting from a safe distance away. I could see in those demon eyes a shred of Naruto left, however small it was, I was going to get him back. It was clear what I had to do, but I was too scared to do it. My features morphed into a frown, my brow furrowing. I had to do this. There isn't any other way, and I had to be quick, I could see that small shred of Naruto left slipping away rapidly.

I took all of my remaining strength and pushed my arms up from Naruto's grip and rested them on either side of his face firmly. The heat radiating off him singed my fingertips but I couldn't bring myself to let go. I stared directly into his eyes and lifted my lips to meet his scorching ones. I forced my kiss upon him, willing him with all of my might to break free of the Kyuubi; tears formed and escaped my eyes but evaporated within seconds because of the heat radiating from him. I pressed my lips stronger into his, still looking at him, forcing myself to plunge deeper into him and embrace his heat- to pour myself into him, in an endeavour to set him free. My grip on his face tightened slightly as I saw the Kyuubi begin to fade in him and Naruto gingerly take hold again. My kiss softened as his grip on me did and I closed my eyes. The kiss was long and passionate, much better then our last. I didn't want it to end; I needed someone strong to rely on, someone strong like Naruto.

I pulled away quickly gasping for breath. _'What am I thinking…? I'm in love with Sasuke! I-I…I'm so confused.' _Unshed tears formed in my eyes again and I couldn't bring myself to look at Naruto. I felt his body shuddering with the all too familiar tempo of sobbing. My hand reached up to caress his face comfortingly. "What am I going to do…?" he breathed into my forehead, as if it was his last breath. I kissed him slightly to the side of his mouth softly in a non-sexual way. A salty tear rolled down and infiltrated my mouth on his now warm skin. His shuddering hadn't subsided.

"Naruto." I said solemnly, almost coldly, "I need you to go and get him. I need you to get my Sasuke back." I felt bad after I said it; I wasn't sure how Naruto was going to react. He looked back at me, a new determination forming in his eyes. His hand came up and wiped the tears from his eyes, even though more fell afterward. I wiped them away this time. His grip on me softened as did his eyes.

"I'll get him back, Kagerou, if it's the last thing I do."


End file.
